Title 16 — Particular Actions, Proceedings and Matters. [Enacted title]

(a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia has jurisdiction to hear and determine petitions and decrees of adoption of any adult or child with authority to make such rules, not inconsistent with this chapter, as shall bring fully…

Any person may petition the court for a decree of adoption. A petition may not be considered by the court unless petitioner’s spouse, if he has one, joins in the petition, except that if either the husband or wife is a natural parent of the prospective adoptee, the natural parent…

A person, whether a minor or an adult, may be adopted.

(a) A petition for adoption may not be granted by the court unless there is filed with the petition a written statement of consent, as provided by this section, signed and acknowledged before an officer authorized by law to take acknowledgments, before a representative of a licen…

A petition filed for the adoption of a person shall be under oath or affirmation of the petitioner and the titling thereof shall be substantially as follows: “Ex parte in the matter of the petition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . for adoption.” The petition or the exhi…

(a) Except as provided by subsection (b) of this section, due notice of pending adoption proceedings shall be given to each person whose consent is necessary thereto, immediately upon the filing of a petition. The notice shall be given by summons, by registered letter sent to the…

(a) Except as provided by section 16-308, upon the filing of a petition the court shall refer the petition for investigation, report, and recommendation to: (1) the licensed child-placing agency by which the case is supervised; or (2) the Mayor, if the case is not supervised by a…

(a) The court may dispense with the investigation, report, and interlocutory decree provided for by this chapter when: (1) The prospective adoptee is an adult; or (2) The petitioner is a spouse or domestic partner of the natural parent of the prospective adoptee and the natural p…

(a) Within a period of ninety days, or such time as extended by the court, after a copy of the petition and the order providing for the report is served upon the agency directed to make the investigation, the agency shall make the report and recommendation required by section 16-…

An attempt to invalidate a final decree of adoption by reason of a jurisdictional or procedural defect may not be received by any court of the District, unless regularly filed with the court within one year following the date the final decree became effective.

From and after the filing of the petition, records and papers in adoption proceedings shall be sealed. They may not be inspected by any person, including the parties to the proceeding, except upon order of the court, and only then when the court is satisfied that the welfare of t…

(a) A final decree of adoption establishes the relationship of natural parent and natural child between adopter and adoptee for all purposes, including mutual rights of inheritance and succession as if adoptee were born to adopter. The adoptee takes from, through, and as a repres…

In the District, “child” or its equivalent in a deed, grant, will, or other written instrument includes an adopted person, unless the contrary plainly appears by the terms thereof, whether the instrument was executed before or after the entry of the interlocutory decree of adopti…

(a) Upon the issuance of a final decree of adoption, an adoption form shall be sent to the Registrar pursuant to the Vital Records Act of 1981. Unless otherwise requested in the petition by the adopters, the Registrar shall cause to be made a new record of the birth in the new na…

The provisions of this chapter have no effect prior to June 8, 1954, except to the extent that they specifically so provide. They do not affect in any way the rights and relations obtained by any decree of adoption entered prior to June 8, 1954.

(a) When a petition for adoption has been filed and there has been no termination or relinquishment of parental rights with respect to the proposed adoptee or consent to the proposed adoption by a parent or guardian whose consent is required under [section 16-304], the Court may …

(a)(1) A final judgment of adoption granted by a judicial, administrative, or executive body of a jurisdiction or country other than the United States shall have the same force and effect in the District as that given to a judgment of adoption entered by the Superior Court of the…