Seeking Birth Records

[ashleysue]

I live in MO but this question pertains to the state of my birth, AR. I am 27 and was adopted at birth and have been researching this matter for quite some time and I am aware of all the registries and they have not worked for me. I went to the chancery court in Fayetteville to petition the court for my birth records and was told by the clerks that the judge would not acknowledge any petitions that weren't filed by a lawyer. I am low income and cannot afford to hire a lawyer, I really want to find this information because I am afraid of waiting too long. The lawyer who handled the adoption cannot find my file since it has been so long but my parent's names were on it and it was made available to my adoptive mother, who didn't want to know. I am having a lot of trouble contacting afformentioned lawyer at this point otherwise i would ask him where to go from here. So at this point, how do I procede? Do i really HAVE to have a lawyer to petition a court? Is there some other way around this? I have heard of some kind of intermediary situation but that costs money. i could save up for it if i knew how much. it just seems like every time i call the courts they transfer me all over the building and give me a big runaround and its exhausting. i just need some sort of straight forward information. thank you for anything you can tell me.

 

[mistoffolees]

I live in MO but this question pertains to the state of my birth, AR. I am 27 and was adopted at birth and have been researching this matter for quite some time and I am aware of all the registries and they have not worked for me. I went to the chancery court in Fayetteville to petition the court for my birth records and was told by the clerks that the judge would not acknowledge any petitions that weren't filed by a lawyer. I am low income and cannot afford to hire a lawyer, I really want to find this information because I am afraid of waiting too long. The lawyer who handled the adoption cannot find my file since it has been so long but my parent's names were on it and it was made available to my adoptive mother, who didn't want to know. I am having a lot of trouble contacting afformentioned lawyer at this point otherwise i would ask him where to go from here. So at this point, how do I procede? Do i really HAVE to have a lawyer to petition a court? Is there some other way around this? I have heard of some kind of intermediary situation but that costs money. i could save up for it if i knew how much. it just seems like every time i call the courts they transfer me all over the building and give me a big runaround and its exhausting. i just need some sort of straight forward information. thank you for anything you can tell me.

I'm not aware of anything that REQUIRES a lawyer, so I think I'd keep pushing. However, if all you want is a simple petition to release information, it might not take that much.

I would start with an initial consultation with an attorney. If you call around, you can probably find one who will give you the first consultation for free. They can tell you if you absolutely need an attorney for this.

I would try to get that consultation with the attorney who handled the adoption. They may feel bad enough about losing your records to file the form for you without charge.