Civil Court Records: What Adoption Restrictions Mean

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Civil court records are, perhaps, some of the most restricted records in the US. The reason for this is that many civil cases involve Family Law, which involves minors. This includes divorce and adoption documents.

The US has many laws on the protection of minors who are involved in cases such as:

- Juvenile offenses – Treating the release of a juvenile's record the same way as an adult's is outlawed in the US. Juvenile court records in the US are not regarded as a criminal but a civil court records.

- Divorce proceedings – The law allows the sealing of records to protect the identities of minor children involved in divorce cases.

- Adoption proceedings – Sealed adoption records are the rule. Historically, sealing adoption records was done to protect the people involved in the proceedings from the stigma of illegitimacy and pregnancy outside marriage.

Civil Court Records: States the Have Unsealed Adoption Records

For over a quarter of a century, the public clamor for unsealing adoption records has steadily grown. The stigma mentioned above hardly exists anymore. It has, instead, been replaced by gratitude that a child has been adopted into a happy family. But, so far, only five states have allowed unsealing adoption records:

Civil Court Records: What “Unsealed” Means

An open adoption record doesn't mean that it is open to the general public. Unsealing adoption records simply means that they become open to the triad parties:

Civil Court Records: What “Sealed” Means

When adoption records are sealed, this means that adopted children will only be able to see partial adoption records. These edited adoption records:

Sealed adoption records may also mean that the civil court records were falsified. Such a practice was tacitly allowed under the law in the McCarthy Era.

People adopted at the time will generally find it impossible to check out their medical history via adoption agencies. It wasn't unusual back then for the agency to put in the child's adoptive parents as the biological parents in the adoption records.

Judges in some states with sealed adoption records have been known to deny unsealing even when the reason of the petitioner is a medical one. Judges have denied unsealing adoption records even in matters of life and death, such as finding a donor for an adopted child with a fatal disease.

Imagine having to go through getting a court order for such a reason only to be denied! This is why sealed adoption records have become so unpopular, especially with the rise in such fatal diseases that are genetically linked, such as cancer or even, to a certain extent, Alzheimer's.

Even apart from medical reasons, many adopted children – as well as biological mothers – want the opportunity to renew their bonds. One famous example is that of singer Joni Mitchell, who was very grateful to be reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption back in the 1960s.

Visit RecordsSiteReview’s Court Records page for all the information and assistance you need in understanding the importance of court records and how to obtain them.