XV. The Law, Page 3
The Legal Process, from Placement to the Adoption Order
You can apply for an adoption order as soon as the child is placed with you, and if you have any worry that the birth family might try to reclaim a very young child, you should put in your application immediately, because lodging the application makes it impossible for the placement to be terminated without your or the agency’s consent. If your child has a freeing order from the courts there is no need to worry about the birth parents changing their minds, because they have no legal say in the matter any more.
If you are adopting a child with special needs you should wait a while before making your application to adopt, to be sure the placement is going to work out. Some families decide that the level of support they expect to need in the future means that they should long-term foster the child, rather than adopt, to be sure of being able to call on help when needed. If your child is able to understand and form an opinion about the placement, you should wait until she has decided whether she wants to go through with it (the choice is not simply between adoption and leaving your family; she could decide for long-term fostering or a residence order) — this could take some months.
The minimum time period between placement and the court hearing to make the adoption order is three months, but the three months can’t start until the child is at least six weeks old, and if it is an overseas adoption the minimum period is 12 months.
Adoption applications can be made to the Magistrates Court, County Court or High Court in England and Wales, the Sheriff Court or Court of Sessions in Scotland. You get the application form from the court offices. They are available in English and Welsh (in Wales). There is no requirement to have a solicitor involved in an adoption application or court hearing: you can fill in the form yourself, and in an ordinary, uncomplicated hearing there is no need for a solicitor to be there for the adoption hearing. There are however some parts of the application form which are not easy to understand, and there are some parts which call for information which you may not have, such as details of the freeing order and the child’s full birth name. If there is no freeing order in effect there are sections asking for details of the birth parents and consent forms which you may not be able to fill in without help. You pay the court fee when you file the completed application. The fees for adoption proceedings are £30.00 (Magistrates Courts) and £120.00 (County Courts), which includes the filing fee and the court appearance itself.
The hearing for an uncontested adoption is unlike other court hearings. It is held in the judge’s chambers or a cleared courtroom and is not open to the public. They are also usually informal. Judges appreciate the different mood in adoption hearings and may let the child try on the wig or sit in the judge’s chair. The people present will be you and your new child, the judge and the clerk, any social workers who need to come (there will always be at least one), maybe the children’s guardian, and your solicitor, if you want. The judge will have read the relevant papers beforehand and will ask a few questions to be satisfied that everything is in order. If the child is old enough the judge will ask her (possibly without you being present) if she is willing to be adopted. Then the judge will make the order, and that’s all there is to it.
It all comes as something of an anticlimax after all the years of waiting and worrying. You may not even be aware that the order has been made until you are back on the street outside. In Scotland there isn’t even a formal hearing. But never mind. It’s over and you are now officially a family. Take the day off, go eat some junk food, go to the park, to the cinema, whatever you want. This is the most important day in your life as a family, and you should mark it. Don’t be surprised when the adoption order arrives in the post — it’s even less impressive than the court hearing. Someone really should do something about those adoption orders and do something to make the court hearings more of an occasion, without making them intimidating.
© Roger Ridley Fenton
