New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:23 – Confidentiality of Records
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Notwithstanding any other law concerning public hearings and records:
I. All hearings held in adoptive proceedings shall be in closed court without admittance of any person other than essential officers of the court, the parties, their witnesses, counsel, and representatives of the agencies present to perform their official duties.
II. All papers and records, including birth certificates, pertaining to the adoption, whether part of the permanent record of the court or of a file in the division, in an agency or office of the town clerk or the bureau of vital records and health statistics are subject to inspection only upon written order of the court for good cause shown, except as otherwise provided in N.H. Rev. Stat. § 170-B:24.
III. Nothing contained in this section or N.H. Rev. Stat. § 170-B:24 shall prevent the department or the licensed child-placing agency from sharing with the adoptive parents all information it has available about the minor child being placed for adoption. The department or the licensed child-placing agency shall delete any information which would tend to identify a birth parent.
I. All hearings held in adoptive proceedings shall be in closed court without admittance of any person other than essential officers of the court, the parties, their witnesses, counsel, and representatives of the agencies present to perform their official duties.
Terms Used In New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:23
- Agency: means any person licensed by existing law to place minors for adoption. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Child: means a son or daughter, whether by birth or by adoption. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Court: means probate court. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Department: means the department of health and human services. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Minor: or "minor child" means any individual under the age of 18. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Parent: means mother, birth father, legal father, or adoptive parent, but such term shall not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship has been terminated by judicial decree or voluntarily surrender. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
- Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 170-B:2
II. All papers and records, including birth certificates, pertaining to the adoption, whether part of the permanent record of the court or of a file in the division, in an agency or office of the town clerk or the bureau of vital records and health statistics are subject to inspection only upon written order of the court for good cause shown, except as otherwise provided in N.H. Rev. Stat. § 170-B:24.
III. Nothing contained in this section or N.H. Rev. Stat. § 170-B:24 shall prevent the department or the licensed child-placing agency from sharing with the adoptive parents all information it has available about the minor child being placed for adoption. The department or the licensed child-placing agency shall delete any information which would tend to identify a birth parent.