Below are some common questions and answers in regards to the court system and agents.

Q. Are there any other limitations imposed by the law upon the court and its agents under the activity of searching for and contacting the birth parents?
A. The court and the agent may refuse to contact the birth parents if it is believed that, under the circumstances, there would be a substantial risk that the persons other than the birth parents would learn of the adoptee's existence in relationship to the birth parents.

Q. Who may be appointed to serve as an agent to locate and make contact with the birth parents?
A. Depending on the state, the court may appoint either the county's children and youth agency or a private agency, which provided adoption services in accordance with standards established by the Department of Public Welfare. If possible, the court will appoint as agent the adoption agency or the successor, which handled the adoption of the person seeking information or contact with the birth parents. In the states that have confidential intermediaries they will be appointed.

Q. Why is the adoption agency that worked with the birth parents and adoptive parents selected to serve as the adoptee's agent?
A. In most cases, the agency's file contains more information than does the official court record. The search for non-identifying information and location of parents is usually more efficient, economical and successful when these records are available.

Q. What does the court do with a petition from a person who was adopted privately and not through an adoption agency?
A. The court will appoint one of the agents approved by law, that is, the county children and youth agency or a private adoption agency or a confidential intermediary depending on the state laws.

Q. Since these agents do not have their own files on the adoption, how can they do a search?
A. In the search involving a private adoption, the agent will review the court records and track down leads from the information disclosed there. It is often more difficult to search for birth parents when an adoptee has been adopted privately, as there is often times little information available.

Q. Is there any way other than petitioning the court that an adoptee may obtain information about his birth parents or make contact with them?
A. Yes, in many states an adoptee who is at least 18 years of age (or if less than 18, his adoptive parent or legal guardian) may request the agency that placed the adoptee to contact his birth parents. The agency may, however, ask the adoptee to obtain a court order.

Q. Are there any legal restrictions upon the agency that placed the adoptee with the adoptive parents when the adoptee requests information about birth parents?
A. Any information given by the adoption agency to the adopted person must be done in accordance with the state law that governs the agency. In many states, it is, only non-identifying information may be revealed from the agency files.

Q. What if an adoptee wants to make contact with the birth parents?
A. Again, the agency must act in accord with the law that governs its activities when it is appointed by the court to act as an agent for an adopted person. In many states it must protect the anonymity of the birth parent unless the birth parents decide to permit the contact.