Newborn Advantage Surrogacy Lawsuit Calls Company’s Surrogate Matching Promises ‘Utterly False’

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Newborn Advantage Surrogacy has falsely promised prospective parents that it can quickly match them with suitable surrogates, when in truth the company’s surrogacy candidates will more than likely fail requisite medical and psychological evaluations.

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The 33-page lawsuit says that Newborn Advantage Surrogacy’s promise that it can match prospective parents with suitable surrogates “far faster than competitors” is “utterly false” as those who have retained the company’s services either never found a suitable surrogate or did so only after lengthy delays, “in an emotionally fraught context where time is critical.”

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Consumers who retained the agency’s services have paid considerable fees and ancillary costs “without ever receiving the kind of service promised” by defendants Newborn Advantage Surrogacy, M. Berkson LLC and Santa Monica Fertility Center, the class action lawsuit summarizes.

The complaint relays that finding an appropriate surrogate mother can be a difficult task for those who wish to have a child but may experience medical or other obstacles. A suitable surrogate “must be not only willing but also physically and psychologically fit for the task,” the case shares, and many couples turn to agencies that specialize in matching prospective parents with acceptable surrogates in line with the individuals’ preferences and criteria.

The case states, however, that the surrogacy process has “enabled considerable fraud,” especially given that the surrogate industry is unregulated, with mismanagement often devolving into “outright fraud,” according to the suit.

Though the defendants present Newborn Advantage Surrogacy as providing a level of service unmatched by competitor agencies, the plaintiff’s experience shows that “these representations are highly deceptive, as is often the case with surrogacy clinics.”

According to the lawsuit, after the plaintiff contacted Newborn Advantage Surrogacy’s owner, she quickly proposed a surrogate before the plaintiff even signed a contract. The plaintiff and her spouse read the proposed surrogate’s profile, interviewed her on Zoom, concluded that she appeared adequate for the job, and were thus led to believe that the defendants could deliver on their promises, the suit contends.

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After the plaintiff agreed to pay a $36,000 fee, and after the proposed surrogate’s name was inked into the contract—which contained a provision that Newborn Advantage Surrogacy would find a replacement surrogate should this one fail medical and psychological clearance evaluations—the woman failed the evaluations, as did all but one of roughly five surrogates that were proposed thereafter, the lawsuit claims.

“Newborn Advantage’s website represents to prospective clients, including Plaintiff, that a prospective surrogate failing medical clearance evaluations is an ‘unlikely event,’” the complaint says. “In reality, it was passing the clearance evaluations that turned out to be the unlikely exception. Failure was the norm.”

Further, the case calls “patently false” Newborn Advantage Surrogacy’s assurance that it can find “the perfect candidate” for a surrogate in two weeks or fewer, a claim the filing says is contrasted against the purportedly normal, average wait times of other agencies.

While the defendants sometimes proposed a potential surrogate within two weeks of a previous candidate, it would typically take much longer to arrange for an interview, the suit claims.

“More significantly, it would then take months and months before the medical clearance evaluations could take place (which typically ended in failure, as discussed above),” the complaint states, alleging the defendants have failed to disclose that, due to demand, prospective parents often must wait months just to begin the process.

According to the case, the plaintiff was refused a refund as she despaired that Newborn Advantage would ever find a suitable surrogate after the latest proposed candidate failed medical clearance.

The Newborn Advantage lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, were paying clients of the defendants, had not been matched with a suitable surrogate—i.e., one that was chosen by the individual and passed all required medical and psychological evaluations—within two weeks of retaining the defendants, and were not refunded in full the case management fee they paid the defendants.

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