Karen Lane, Attorney at Law review: Adoption Fraud 8

My husband and I hired Karen Lane as our Adoption Attorney in our journey to adopt a child. Her services were to include matching us with a birthmother, gathering medical documents and legal documents necessary for the adoption, interaction & screening of the birthmother, finalizing the adoption, getting us the new birth certificate, acting as somewhat of an "escrow" service for the facilitation of money as allowed to the birth mom that we were matched with, and to guide us through the process.

We paid her $5, 500 (as demanded) to retain her. After she received our money, she deemed that "earned" prior to doing anything for us. Afterwards, she asked us for $1, 200 for "advertising". She put her (800) on our advertisements and we later learned that the reason for this was so that she could retain control of the birth mom(s) and then decide who to match them with (regardless of the fact that it was our money that paid for the ad). During our tenure with her (which didn't last the entire duration of the contract we paid for), she tried to match us with multiple women who were definitely nowhere near what we requested. We were looking for a Caucasian Female newborn, and she attempted to match us with multiple drug addicts, a Hispanic woman, etc. She put us down constantly and told us we were too picky and didn't seem very interested in making us happy.

Eventually, she presented us with a Caucasian women who was giving birth to a girl. She told us the woman had experimented with drugs in the beginning of her pregnancy, but had since stopped. She also told us that the women didn't know who the father of the baby was. None of this was true as I found out later. We accepted the match and I began a strong relationship with the birthmother. The birthmother informed me that Karen told her to say that she didn't know who the father of the baby was, despite the truth (that she did know). Karen also told the birthmother to lie to us about her drug use. Karen put the responsibility of housing this birth mom on us (as she took off for vacation). This was no easy task as the birthmother was homeless and none of the hotels would let her stay there due to her past behavior.

About a month or so later, we finally received the medical reports on our birth mom and discovered that she had a severe drug problem with Xanex and Meth and was actively using during her entire pregnancy. At that point, we had to remove ourselves from the situation. Karen told us she would refund our money (matching fee & money to reimburse our birth mom for her expenses) if she found someone else that would take over to adopt this baby. Karen did find someone immediately, yet very little money was reimbursed. We moved on and waited for Karen to find us another baby.

A month or so later, Karen called us to tell us that she had flown the 8 1/2 month pregnant woman to CA and she had given birth. She said the baby was healthy and she was no longer going to allow the single woman who had taken our place in the "match" to adopt the baby. No reasons were given to us. Karen would not allow us to speak to a Doctor about the baby's health and she highly pressured us to make an immediate decision over the phone. We called a friend of ours to get some advice on what to look for in a baby to see if they are addicted to drugs (since Karen changed her mind about allowing us to speak to the birth mom's Doctor). He was on Jury Duty so we were unable to reach him until later in the day. In the meantime, we went to Los Angeles to see the birth mom and baby. Apparently, Karen was contacted by a Social Worker who regularly refers her to prospective adoptive parents who are having a difficult time getting matched. The Social Worker, Judy Goldman, referred Karen to a couple (not Karen's clients at that point) who consisted of two men (in their late 50's I would guess). One was not a citizen of the United States and the other was on Parole from Federal Prison. Despite the fact that we were her clients of a year at that point and we had driven a few hours in traffic to get to Los Angeles, she allowed the other couple to meet with our former birthmother first. After a few hours, we were allowed in the room. We ate dinner with the birthmother and then waited for her decision. Much to our surprise (since we had a relationship with this birthmother for a few month and the other couple just met her for the first time that night), we were told she picked the other couple. Two days later, the birthmother called us to tell her that Karen Lane had bribed and threatened her to pick the other couple. With no money to her name and living in a motel that Karen paid for with our money, she felt she had no choice. But she desperately wanted her child to have a mother and really wanted us to parent the baby. We told her she needed to tell Karen this. That was the last we heard from her until her boyfriend flew to CA. We then found out that Karen had taken her cell phone from her and threatened her again. She was virtually kidnapped and imprisoned for her baby. She was also supplied Xanex and Oxycontin by a Doctor that Karen provides birthmothers to (dozen of birthmothers per year). This is the Doctor that refused to meet with us to discuss the health of the baby we were supposed to adopt.

Bottom line is that Karen is the most corrupt attorney I've ever encountered. She is, in my opinion, selling babies at the birthmother's expense, her own client's expense (in our case) and, most importantly, at the child's expense. She owes us around $18, 000 that she bragged to the birth mom "we'd never get" and they would "go to Rodeo Drive shopping and out to dinner" on our money. She illegally gave my former birthmother $8, 000 in cash (in Illinois, where my former birthmother is from, they are only allowed to reimbursed up to $2, 000 and only for legitimate expenses they've already encurred). It is illegal to pay for a baby. In the end, Karen took retainers and money for the birth mom's expenses from three couples and pocketed most of the money herself. I've been contacted by many people who have had horror stories with this woman so I have not doubt that her time ripping off innocent prospective adoptive couples will come to an end in the future. I hope for her future victims, this will be sooner rather then later.