Adult Adoptions

Adult Adoption Process - Parent Child Holding Hands

SUBPART B. PERSONS OVER SEVENTEEN

§461. Right of adoption; conditions, limitations, and procedure; court order

A. Any person eighteen years or older may adopt any person over the age of seventeen years, according to the following conditions, limitations, and procedure:

(1) The adoption shall be effected by the execution of a notarial act signed by:

(a) The adoptive parent or parents and the person to be adopted when the person to be adopted is a major or an emancipated minor.

(b) The adoptive parent or parents and the duly appointed curator when the person to be adopted is an interdicted major.

(c) The adoptive parent or parents and the living parent or parents or guardian or tutor, or a tutor ad hoc appointed for the purpose, of the person to be adopted when the person to be adopted is an unemancipated minor over the age of seventeen years.

(2) All proceedings in connection with the appointment of a tutor or tutors ad hoc shall be heard by the judge, in chambers. Records of the proceedings, except the act of adoption proper, shall not be opened for inspection except on authorization by the court, and there shall be no publication thereof. All pleadings and offerings filed under this Section since January 1, 1952, save the said act of adoption, shall be confidential, and indexed and filed by the clerk of court, as provided in R.S. 9:437.

(3) If the person to be adopted is older than the adoptive parent or parents and is not an interdicted major, a petition for decree of adoption shall be presented to a court of proper jurisdiction in the parish of domicile of the adoptive parent or parents. The proceedings in connection with the decree shall be held in chambers. The adoptive parent or parents must establish to the satisfaction of the court that the adoption is in the best interests of the person to be adopted and the adoptive parent or parents. The court may require evidence to be presented or may direct that an investigation be conducted as to the reasons for and appropriateness of the adoption. The records of the proceedings, except the judgment granting or denying the decree of adoption, shall be confidential and indexed and filed by the clerk of court, as provided in R.S. 9:437, and shall not be opened for inspection except under court order.

B. The notarial act executed in accordance with Paragraph A(1) of this Section shall be registered, in the parish or parishes in which both the adoptive parent or parents and the person being adopted are domiciled, with the clerk of court or, in Orleans Parish, with the register of conveyances. The clerk of court or register of conveyances shall record all such notarial acts of adoption, except as otherwise provided in Subsection A hereof, in a separate book kept by him for the purpose and shall keep an index of the same under the names of the adoptive parents and the person adopted.

C. In cases in which the adopted person was born in a state other than Louisiana which requires a court order prior to issuing a new birth certificate and upon petition of the parent, parents, or the person to be adopted, a court of proper jurisdiction may grant a judgment of adoption based upon the notarial act of adoption without further proceedings or investigation. In such cases, the validity and civil effects of the notarial act of adoption are in no way affected by the court order and shall continue to be governed by the laws applicable thereto.

Acts 1983, No. 68, §1; Acts 1984, No. 822, §1; Acts 1985, No. 171, §1; Acts 1988, No. 124, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1989.