Requesting Closed Adoption Records to Be Opened

**MrsDroege** · 08-09-2009, 08:20 AM

My question involves adoption law for the State of: Ohio

I recently made contact with a woman I believe to be my biological mother. She informed me that at the time of the final decree that she had a letter added to the file giving me complete permission to have it opened after I turned 18. Unfortunately I can't find any information on where to even start to get my file. I was born in 1984 which according to most of the information I find online is in the "don't even bother you will never get your records opened" time frame in Ohio.

Can anyone help me? I would like formal confirmation before becoming too emotionally invested with this person.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 08-11-2009, 10:36 AM

Read this.

Quoting Adoption Information

Adoptions Between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996 – Adoption Records are Sealed and Only Opened by a Court Order (H.B. 84)

More details are here. If your parent has authorized release of the adoption records, you may petition the court to release them. If this person has not authorized the release, or has done so but is not your parent, then the court would not release records (unless your actual parent has signed).

**MrsDroege** · 08-11-2009, 10:42 AM

Thank you for the information, but I already knew that part. What I don't know is how to go about doing the petitioning. Do I need to retain an attorney to do it on my behalf or is there a form that I can just submit?

**Mr. Knowitall** · 08-11-2009, 10:53 AM

If you can use the various online resources or standard court forms, and navigate through the process yourself, you can represent yourself. If that confounds you, you'll need to get help from a lawyer.

**MrsDroege** · 08-11-2009, 11:07 AM

Thank you, I guess I'll have to find a lawyer. None of those forms apply to Franklin County, nor does browsing for Franklin county specific forms seem to turn anything up.

I don't want to waste money or time doing it wrong, and if its a fairly simple matter it shouldn't cost much for a lawyer to help with it.

Additional question: If I contact the original lawyer to the case would they be able to confirm that the person I found is my biological mother, or at the very least that they only represented one adoption on that day at that hospital? Would they even be able to talk to me since I wasn't their client at all (my parents were)?