Darn. And I have my adoption statistics professor on speed dial :-).

I'm gonna guess 1.5%. I think the number is probably pretty small.

I'm going to guess 20%. I'd like to think that there are birth parents out there that are willing to really fight for their kids.

Actually get to the point of a legal challenge? I'm guessing it's really, really small. Like 1% or less.

Small note: one comment is missing because it was an accidental double post. I didn't remove an answer because it was "right."

Anybody want to discuss why they picked the answer that they did? Like Lindy stated her reason?

I feel all-powerful in knowledge right now. Muahahaha.

Ok because I'm late to the party I'm sure it'll look like I'm jumping on the low number bandwagon but I really was thinking 1% prior to reading everyone else's response.

I think though that it does depend I'm thinking 1% for domestic infant adoptions not foster care. I think there are many reasons including lack of knowledge about how to contest, not waking from the fog in time to contest, and not having access to legal representation to contest just to name a few.

10% is my guess.

Oh, I'm so out of this. I used to know this answer a couple of years ago, when I was researching contested adoptions all over the place (that's how I started reading these blogs). We went through a contested adoption. It was heart-breakingly hard...the birth father who contested refused to mediate with us or get himself a lawyer after his objection was filed. A year after his objection was filed, the judge terminated his rights when he didn't show up at the pre-trial hearing.

So, I am going to guess that 10% of adoptions are contested for one reason or another, but I think that less than 1% actually go through the full-blown trial. There are so many steps in the process.

Here are my tips if you're a birth parent going through this process:

If you want to contest an adoption, get a good lawyer very quickly, because the more time that goes by, the less likely you will be to overturn the adoption. If our daughter's birth father had pushed for the trial right after his objection, we would have most likely lost the case because of pro-birth father rights in both of our states. And, he could have found a lawyer to represent him for free/reduced cost.

Make sure to keep your cool and do show a willingness to mediate with the adoptive parents. If you lose your case, there is a hope that you may be able to still have a relationship with your child. Sure, the adoptive parents may be jerks. But, they could also be quite reasonable people who are willing to work with you. We were actually hoping to work out an open adoption arrangement, if things went well with mediation.

If you're an adoptive parent going through this:

Make sure you have your own adoption attorney to check into whether or not your agency was unethical. Our attorney assured us that our agency hadn't screwed up. We were in a highly unusual situation with our contested adoption because of some legal loopholes between our two states that made it possible for the situation to occur in the first place - that and the birth mom had been a little less than honest with people.

Have positive thoughts about the birth parents. Try not to let your close friends and family belittle them for the situation you are in. Remember that they have qualities that are in the child you love and are raising right now. The mediation period before the pre-trial hearing is very important. If you want to avoid costly legal debts, don't be jerks. Listen to the birth parents and try to work with them.

Have hope that this child will remain with you; but if it looks like you will have to relinquish the child to the birth family because you don't stand a chance, then try not to be bitter. See if you can build enough of a friendship that you would get updates if things did not turn out in your favor.

Okay...sorry to hog the comments.