Poly Families Project

We are proud to be the first nonprofit to provide direct legal services and support for polyamorous families. Now, for the first time in the U.S., this service will be available to families who otherwise could not afford it.

Family formation support: 

We support polyamorous partners of 3 or more in creating intentional agreements about how to share finances if at all, manage the needs of a shared household, and engage in Wills and estate planning that protect more than one partner. 

Parenting as 3 or more:

When parenting as three or more, whether polyamorous or in a platonic co-parenting arrangement, it is essential to have a clear Co-Parenting Agreement to protect third or fourth non-legal parents as much as possible, negotiated with the support of an attorney knowledgeable about this specific and rapidly changing area of law. 

Protecting parentage:

If polyamory is used against you in a child custody case, while we cannot represent you as your attorney, we may be able to provide consultation, support, or strategy to make sure you have culturally competent counsel who can make sure your adult romantic relationships aren’t used against you. Our Executive Director Diana Adams has been a leader in these cases, representing clients and winning on these cases throughout New York State, and consulting on these cases nationwide. 

Advocacy:

We engage in legislative advocacy for recognition of three or more legal parents and support third-parent and fourth-parent adoption to expand parentage laws.

We also work to prevent discrimination against polyamorous parents, who currently are often unable to adopt through an adoption agency if they openly identify as polyamorous. 

Chosen Family Law Center is a founding partner in the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC).  PLAC seeks to advance the civil and human rights of polyamorous people and non-nuclear families. 

PLAC’s model ordinances for multi-partner domestic partnership made history in 2020 as the first to pass in the USA  when they were adopted into law in several Massachusetts cities. Read the press.

More information on support for polyamorous families in Diana's article for the LGBTQ Bar Association's Family Law Institute on What Polyamorous & Multi-Parent Families Should Do To Protect Their Rights.