- Call 24/7 (800) 525-6386 Tap Here to Call Us
What Changes on the Day a Michigan Adoption Becomes Final
Most of what is written about adoption in Michigan concerns getting to the order. Less is written about what the order does once it enters, and that is where the legal consequences actually live. Inheritance, the birth certificate, the sealed file, and a former parent’s standing all change by statute on that day, and each change is specific.
MCL 710.60 states the core effect. After the order of adoption, the person or persons adopting become the parent or parents of the adoptee under the law as though the adopted person had been born to them, and are liable for all the duties and entitled to all the rights of parents. Where the adoptee’s name is changed, the adoptee is known and called by the new name from that point.
Inheritance Moves in Both Directions
Subsection (2) removes any distinction between the rights and duties of natural progeny and adopted persons. The adopted person becomes an heir at law of the adopting parent or parents, and also of the lineal and collateral kindred of the adopting parents. An adopted child inherits from adoptive grandparents, aunts, and uncles on the same footing as a child born into the family.
The same subsection closes the door on the other side. Except as provided in MCL 700.2114(2) of the Estates and Protected Individuals Code, an adopted child is no longer an heir at law of a parent whose rights have been terminated under the adoption code or under chapter XIIA, nor of that parent’s lineal or collateral kindred.
The cross-reference to MCL 700.2114(2) is the exception families most often need to know about, and it is not described in the adoption code itself. Anyone planning around inheritance from a former parent’s family should have that provision read rather than assumed.
One relationship survives by express provision. The section does not prohibit the filing of an action or the entry of an order for grandparenting time under MCL 722.27b of the Child Custody Act. A biological grandparent’s ability to seek time is preserved even where the parent’s rights ended.
The File Locks and the Certificate Changes
MCL 710.67 governs the record. Records of proceedings in adoption cases, and the papers and books relating to them, are kept in separate locked files and are not open to inspection or copy except on order of a court of record for good cause shown, expressly permitting it.
The lock tightens after a short window. After 21 days following entry of the final order of adoption, the court shall not permit copy or inspection of the proceedings except as the section or MCL 710.68 otherwise provides. A person in charge of adoption records may not disclose the names of the biological or adoptive parents unless ordered by a court, except to meet the requirements for creating the new birth certificate.
That certificate is the visible result. The director of health and human services furnishes the adopting parents a certified copy of a new birth certificate in the adoptive name that does not disclose the adoption, and the original certificate is sealed. A birth certificate issued to an adopted person shall not refer to adoption and must conform as nearly as possible to the appearance of certificates issued in other cases. Our Michigan adoption page sets out the steps that produce the order in the first place.
What an Adult Adoptee Can Later Obtain
The lock is not permanent silence. MCL 710.68 sets timetables for information that can be released. Within 63 days after a request, a child placing agency, a court, or the department must provide in writing all of the nonidentifying information described in MCL 710.27 to an adoptive parent, an adult adoptee, a former parent, or an adult former sibling who asks for it.
Identifying information is different, and consent controls it. Within 63 days after a request about an adult adoptee, the agency, court, or department provides the adult adoptee’s most recent name and address to a former parent or adult former sibling where the adult adoptee has given written consent to release under the chapter. Without that consent, the identifying information is not released on request.
A request that reaches the wrong body is redirected rather than refused. Where the department or an agency receives a request for record information from an adult adoptee, former parent, or adult former sibling, it must identify the court that confirmed the adoption within 28 days, and a court receiving such a request identifies the agency that handled it.
Where a Stepparent Adoption Reaches This Point
A stepparent adoption over the other parent’s objection arrives at the same order through MCL 710.51(6), which allows the court, on notice and hearing, to terminate the other parent’s rights where both of two conditions are met for the two years before the petition. The other parent, having the ability to support or assist in supporting the child, must have failed or neglected to provide regular and substantial support, or failed to substantially comply with a support order. And that parent, having the ability to visit, contact, or communicate, must have regularly and substantially failed or neglected to do so.
Two details in that provision are easy to miss. A support order stating that support is $0.00, or that support is reserved, is treated as if no order had been entered, so the support prong is measured against ability rather than against the order. And both prongs are conditioned on ability, so a parent who lacked the means or the access is not measured against what they could not do.
Whichever route produces the order, the effects above follow from it. Inheritance from the terminated parent ends, subject to the estates code exception, and the record closes in the same way. The custody case that usually precedes a stepparent petition is covered on our Michigan child custody page.
The 21-day window after the order is the last point at which the file is readily reachable, and families who will later want copies of anything in it should think about that before it closes. If that is where your situation sits, call us at (800) 525-6386.
After the Order of Adoption Enters
An adoption order settles a family’s legal relationships in a way few other orders do, and the consequences are easier to understand in advance than to unwind later. We handle adoption at Neumann Law Group alongside the rest of our Michigan family law practice, in Northern Michigan and statewide. Call our office at (800) 525-6386, or contact us online, and we will talk it through with you.