[tondy24]

We recently adopted our daughter from Louisianna and are planning on finalizing in California (our home state). I know that both states require us to wait 6 months post placement before we can get a court date to finalize. The 6 months would put us in towards the end of November and we are looking at moving out of state right at the end of the year. So my question is do you think we will be able to get our court date before January 1st? For those of you that have finalized in California how long after the 6 months was your court date?

[mommy3]

We are a CA family and didn't wait 6 mos -- it was close, though. Our daughter was born 11/25/05 and we finalized 5/16/06. From what I do understand, getting a court date in CA is greatly dependent upon your lawyer moving your paperwork along, the court doing the same and the court having available dates. In our small town, I was given a date 10 days after we had all paperwork filed, and I could have had a date 3 days after, had we wanted it! Good luck! susan

[kelceesmom]

What Susan says is correct. There is no wait time it just depends on the courts and all the paperwork being finished.

[SanInUtah]

Originally Posted by tondy24

We recently adopted our daughter from Louisianna and are planning on finalizing in California (our home state). I know that both states require us to wait 6 months post placement before we can get a court date to finalize. The 6 months would put us in towards the end of November and we are looking at moving out of state right at the end of the year. So my question is do you think we will be able to get our court date before January 1st? For those of you that have finalized in California how long after the 6 months was your court date?

If you have an uncontested adoption your attorney will probably be able to do 'a walk-on' and have any judge sign-off on the paperwork. (You get a finalized order that day and recording requests new birth cert's, ect. That was our experience anyway.) You don't need to be there. If you wait for a court date it can take a few months to get on the calendar, depending on what's going on. There are mass-adoption days in Monterey Park where 300 kids get adopted all in one afternoon. It's fun and goes quickly. If you don't mind the carnival atmosphere it might be a way to get on the docket faster.

The advice that your process time is only as good as your attorney is good. If you are in So. CA and need an attorney let me know. I can recommend two good ones, at least.

[MollyinSD]

Ours was right at 6 months actually a little less. I think it mainly depends on openings at the court and your lawyer. We asked if it was possible to get it done the day we did, because my son's baptism was that weekend as well. So out of town relatives got to be there for a lot of major events.

[lisa in venice]

As long as the paperwork is I order and you begin the process right away you shouldn't have a problem. It used to take almost a year or more because adoptions could only be finalized in a few courts around the state. In a state this big you can imagine the back log. Recently they began allowing it ti happen at all of the local court houses and BOY has that sped up the process. Our older kid's adoptions were final at 1 year and at 20 months but Miranda's was done under the new system and it was done right at the six month mark .

lisa