Need some help overcoming/understanding a legal roadblock?

Question

When talking to people about getting my wife's record opened, I hear them say that most courts will not open the record and divulge identifying information without a "good" reason. What we want is simply medical information for the sake of our kids, but this is the roadblock that we encounter.

What is a "good" reason (or "medically neccessary" reason) to open the file? Why open them for some and not others?

Answer 1

Unfortunately "good" isn't legally defined for our situation so its left up to the discretion of the judge. Which can vary from judge to judge. For some, many, there are no "good" reasons. There are the occasional sympathetic judges that do sympathize w/ medical needs, especially if there are current illnesses being experienced in the adoptees life or her/his immediate, blood related family :)

Answer 2

I apologize for asking a question within a question, but I thought it might be helpful for the asker as well.

Laurie-  would there be any harm in petitioning more than once, taking a chance that you might get a different judge?

Answer 3

"Good cause" is not strictly defined.  It is left to the discretion of the judge in each case.  Therefore, you and another person may both file identical petitions, but one judge may approve it and another may deny it.  "Good cause" is also considered a "high burden" to meet.  

Here is the letter I received from the judge who denied my petition, despite the fact that I have a relationship with my entire first family.

http://unsealrecords.com/letterfromjudge...

ETA:

Sarah, not at all.  Many people have petitioned more than once just for that reason.  I just haven't done so yet, although I'm planning to do so.  The judge who denied mine recently retired.

Answer 4

I asked the same question!   here it is - perhaps some of the answers would be useful.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Some Judges think an adoptee wanting to know is 'good cause'

Other Judges think dying of a rare genetic disorder and the need for urgent updated medical information isn't 'good cause'

I wish you the best of luck

Join the fight for equal treatment under the law for adoptees.  Petitioning the Court for records that non-adopted people have free access to is dehumanizing, infantalizing and pure discrimination

"The Law must be consonant with life. It cannot and should not ignore broad historical currents. Mankind is possessed of no greater urge than to answer the age old questions of Who Am I? and Why Am I?. Even now the sands and ashes of the deserts are being sifted to find where we took our first steps as man. Ancient religions often used ancestor worship in one form or another. The thirst to know the past is neither whimsical nor unjust. It is real and is good cause under the law of Man and God"

The Honorable Wade Weatherford, South Carolina District Judge granting an adoptee access to his records.

ETA:  I forgot to add that being of Native American Origin authomatically qualifies as 'good cause'

Answer 5

My biological children were born in 1983 and 1984 and we only had my medical history because their father was an adopted person.

We were not able to obtain any medical history and told we would not be able to get it for any reason...

When Oregon Opened birth records we finally were able to obtain this info.