After a match is made, how long does the legal process take? (And much more info about the legal process!)

Learn the answer to this week's user-submitted question about surrogacy in this week's installment of Ask a Surrogacy Expert! Have a question about surrogacy that you'd like answered? Submit it at https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ask

Once a match is made, the legal process ensures that both the surrogate and intended parents are protected and supported. In this Ask a Surrogacy Expert video, Jenn explains how long legal contracts typically take during a surrogacy journey, when changes can be made, and the agency’s role in those conversations.

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Hey, everyone, it's Jennifer, CEO of Bright Futures Families Surrogacy, with this week's question, which is, after we are matched, how long does the legal process generally take and what if we need to make corrections or addendums or things like that? Should we involve the agency? Should we not? That's a very long question, so I'll try to answer it as quickly as possible. Generally, the legal process is kind of driven by a bunch of factors by attorneys, how much time they have, how much bandwidth they have, the intended parents and the gestational carrier. So if you're looking for an attorney, when you're making that choice, if it's something that you're like, hey, we want to move really fast, ask them, hey, what is your bandwidth right now? How much time do you have? How long do you anticipate that it will be to see a draft? 

Or once you get a draft, how long will that take? That will help you manage expectations. Generally, though, it takes somewhere around kind of four to six weeks to finish the legal process. So the next question about addendums and things like that. It is possible to amend or make an addendum to a legal contract, but it has to be with everybody's agreement. You can't just unilaterally say, I don't like something. I'm just going to run to the attorney and tell them to make an addendum. You can't enforce your will on somebody else. You can all agree to make an amendment or something like that to the contract, and that's okay. But it has to be an agreement between everybody. Do we like, as an agency, if you involve us in these things? 

Absolutely, because we are helping make sure that the terms of the contract are carried out. And if you are changing the terms of the contract. Contract, it's really helpful to us to know. But do we have the right to be in the middle of your agreement and making those decisions unilaterally for you? Absolutely not. That is between you and your attorneys altogether. We just are here to be a helpful resource. I hope that helps.