Adoption hearings

[ann0102]

Can someone please explain the process to me, I thought it was 1 court hearing, now it seems it's 3? Sorry I'm confused. Thanks :)

Hi, the first will be a 'directions hearing' where the judge will call your SW and LO SW to the court, tell them to write their reports in support of the application to adopt and be given around 8 weeks to submit the paperwork. Once those reports are received the court will give the second court date where the adoption order will be granted. The third court date takes places 21 days after the adoption order is granted and is called the celebration ceremony (birth parents have three weeks from granting of the adoption order to contest).
So...
1st - directions hearing
2nd - final hearing
3rd - celebration ceremony

Hope that helps. I think I'm right!

Thanks.

My birth sons AO has just been granted and the above is correct as of last week - except the judge said 28 days to contest it but yes it's 3 court dates. To my knowledge the adopters only attend the celebration not the directions or the final hearing.

Anxious is right about attending the celebration hearing. We were told it is possible for us to attend the first two but no adopters really do. Those 2 can be attended by birth parents, the celebration hearing can't and they are not told when it is. Our SW phoned us after each of the first 2 hearings to tell us what happened re contesting etc.
Be prepared for dates to move around. I think we were told 3 different dates for celebration hearing overall, the third one being correct.

Obviously these hearings are a horrific time for birth parents but also be good to yourself too and brace yourself. Our children had clear reasons with evidence to be adopted and I knew that contesting the adoption would go nowhere but the 1% chance gave me far more stress than I had anticipated. I don't think I'd prepared myself enough mentally for that bit. Just a heads up! Afterwards though, when all the SWs disappear and you can just get on with it is lovely :) (though they'll be a few adopters on here who are desperate for good post-adoption support who will disagree with that last bit!)

out of interest how long did/does it take to get the court dates? I know I have to wait ten weeks before applying for the AO but after that I have no idea on time scales...are we talking weeks or months?

Something else to look forward to eh!

Not that you will need it but best of luck X

My son's adopters applied very end of Jul/very early August, directions hearing was mid October, final hearing early/mid November, celebration hearing won't be til New year now due to Christmas holidays etc

The time line anxious has given is pretty typical I think. We were told a lot depended on how busy the court was as to when dates are given. Initially for it all to go through we were told a few months from application of AO through to Celebration Ceremony

Aye, there wasn't any delay with my birth sons as the paperwork was "straight forward" - as much as it can be in adoption related proceedings - and I wasn't contesting it

That's a good point, if it's contested it it could take much longer but would be impossible to say how long.

Yes, just to say it can take an awful lot longer when contested. I applied in March and AO has still not been granted. 6th hearing (and I desperately final one) is next month.

I agree with TeamAcorn that it is v stressful. It's probably the part of the process which has taken me most by surprise - not what has happened but how it has made me feel. I guess before I loved him I was able to be more logical about the risk of not general the AO now each time it goes to court my anxiety levels go through the roof. I also feel desperately sad for BPs who keep getting put through the emotional wringer (with me hoping all the while it is in vain and SS telling me there circ are worse rather than better since PO).

We have our first hearing today and have been informed that the birth Mother will be contesting and the birth father won't. Does that mean there will be any delays and how often does it happen that a child is returned to the BP?

Thanks

We have just heard back from our sons SW that the BM application has been thrown out of court so the order will get granted on the next hearing in a few weeks aslong as she doesn't appeal the decision. I was wondering how many times can she appeal and how long for an appeal to be done and a new hearing to take place?

We can't wait for the 7th so all this can be wrapped up.

@MintyLizzy9 for us, from submitting the paperwork at 10 weeks and getting the adoption order approved, it took 3 months. However, there was no challenge by the birth parents.

We decided not to have a Celebration hearing (which is optional) and have a private celebration instead.

@Approved1988 Once a child is placed with prospective adoptive parents it is nearly impossible for the child to be returned to birth parents, even if the parents made significant changes to their lives. This is because Judges are required to also consider the impact that this would have on the child, which would obviously be very traumatic. I think in recent law history there have only been two cases in the UK where a child has been returned to one of their birth parents after being placed with prospective adopters but circumstances where extraordinary (e.g. administrative errors by social workers + a missing birth parent who never had contact with the child being found) and the children were babies. Therefore things are on your side.

I think if the birth mother had financial resources she could in principle appeal three times - local court, High court, Supreme court. However, it is rare that birth parents fighting adoption orders manage to appeal further than the local court. It is therefore very likely that your order will be approved.