Hi Megan! I've been meaning to reply to this but hadn't found the time yet (wow do the little ones keep you on your toes!). I'll explain the best I can, but just PM me if you have any other questions and I'll send you my phone #.
I want to preface this by saying that I'm passing along the info that I got from both our agency rep, the lawyer that handled our case, and what I learned from other families that were there at the time I was. I haven't read the laws, so this is how it was interpreted to me, so they could be inaccurate. Also, with the law changes that happened this last fall, there is apparently some confusion as to how those should be interpreted and whether these same standards apply. Our lawyer said that this was still being debated, so things may change. Also, all reference to "days" means business days.
Like Ruth Ann said, you're assigned to a court. From that time we were told that the court has 10 days to review the file and request any additional information or paperwork. That request goes to the Defendor of Minors (DoM) that you interviewed with. The DoM then has 5 days to get that info back to the judge. Then the judge has 10 more days to review the file and either ask again for more info, or sign off on the case. After the judge has signed off, anothere DoM that works at the court (not the same one you interviewed with) signs off on the file. I'm told that usually happens the same day and is a formality, so it doesn't take much time. After that is when most families can go and do Sentencia and sign off.
Now, on to the exceptions. First, the family that was there for 11.5 weeks was in a different court than us. Their case had a 4 week delay because of a special circumstance, though not related to their case. The courts moved physical locations (to another part of Bogota) while they were in process. I was told that most courts took 1-3 days to do the move before they resumed their regular work. The judge of their court decided to take 4 weeks to reorganize their files during the move. Because of this, the court was "open" but not processing any cases for those 4 weeks. There was nothing they could do but wait. Again, we were told that this was the only court that decided to take this much time, and I don't think the courts move very often, so not likely something other people will face. They did also have another special circumstance with their court. They were told that there is a District Judge (I know this is the wrong title, but I don't remember what the real title was) that is assigned to 2 courts for periods of 6-12 months at a time. It appears to be an internal auditing kind of thing. The judge is assigned to random courts to review their cases, and all cases in the court require their signature as well as the regular court judge's. This did take them a couple extra days to get, and they were told it can take up to a week to get, depending on the schedule of that person. Again, out of the 20+ courts, this person is assigned to 2 courts at a time, so it doesn't sound like it's very common to have a delay because of this.
The issues that arose with our case seem to be more related to how different people are interpreting the new laws. We were told that our judge had a very big case load at the time and just didn't have time to sign off. The lawyer was there each day to check on the case. While the judge knows the 10-5-10 standard, he believed that this was not a "rule" based on the new laws. We had to wait until he had time to sign, and there is really not much you can do unless you want to take it to their Supreme Court, which can take up to 6 months for them to review the case. The good news is that the judge did tell us in about the 2nd week of waiting that he would sign (he was not disputing any of our paperwork).
As for the difference in length of stay based on the area of the country, what you posted is exactly what we were told - Bogota has the biggest and busiest court system, and other areas of the country can just process cases faster as they have lighter loads.
Not that you're implying this at all, but I have been asked, so I will say that I am not bitter at all towards anyone that worked on our case. While of course it would be nice to know timelines, we knew getting into international adoption that it is very flexible. I heard stories there about people that had very difficult cases, some that were never resolved (mainly due to issues with the adoptive country), and am so thankful that we had a pretty smooth, though longer, in-country process. I unfortunately was even witness to an adoption that was stopped due to the adoptive parents backing out after a few days with the children - it was beyond heartbreaking. It's a beautiful country (though I really wish we could have seen more!) and it was a joy to spend the time there that we did.
I'm hoping for a quick referral for you, Megan! We had a lot of families adopting older children and sibling groups at our hotel, and the children are just amazing!
Kate
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Originally Posted by meganicolson
I'm halfway posting this to see if my fancy data in my signature line works (thanks to the tutorial from a few of you). I'm also curious to know if some of you who know the Colombian legal system might understand this better than I do. You'd think that after completing two Colombian adoptions I'd have this figured out, but I'm still confused.
I've been watching Kate and Ruth Ann's blogs for updates and remembering all of our wonderful, special moments in Colombia. It is so nice to be able to live vicariously through others as they travel. I was thinking about Kate's sentencia as she has written that the judge is over his "10 days to sign" and another family there with her spent 11.5 weeks in Colombia due to (I think) the same judge. (Maybe not the same judge...can't remember correctly.)
Could someone post again the legal steps of the procedure. They are fuzzy in my memory. Also, I heard that some judges require the signature of the Defender of Minors while other judges do not at the end of the case. Does it/should it vary by court room? If the judge has the freedom to require or not require the signature of the defender of minors it seems that the authority is really in the judge's hands, not in a formal process. Also, what is a family to do if they find themselves in the situation where the judge has gone over his "allotted" time to sign. I'd personally be afraid to say anything for fear that he'd deny the adoption altogether. I mean, he is a judge and I'm just a foreigner who is adopting one (or two or eventually a total of 5) of his country's children!
Also, could someone explain the difference in length of court cases in different areas of the country? It seems odd to hear some agencies say that families should expect a 6-8 week stay while others consistently say 4-6 weeks for the same region of the country.
Maybe after our third adoption from Colombia I'll get this figured out. Thanks for all of your help and expertise...
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