Rule 9-109.Hearing on merits

An adoption is granted at a hearing, and the court must make findings on the record on the merits as the applicable statute requires. A consensual private agency guardianship petition is different: there the court may hold a hearing rather than must.

The hearing is private, and the rule is unusually direct about why. Each petitioner and the person to be adopted must attend unless excused for good cause. Everyone else is excluded except those the petitioners consent to and those the court thinks necessary or desirable — and a person who merely consented to the adoption is not entitled to attend on that basis. A committee note explains the reasoning plainly: social policy against public disclosure of adoption proceedings compels hearings to be as private as possible, and how far that yields to the interest of a fair trial is left to the trial court.

Then the findings. In an adoption action the court determines on the record whether the necessary consents have been filed; whether any required consent has been revoked; whether appropriate notices were served; whether investigative reports have been filed; whether all questioned or disputed issues are resolved; in a nonconsensual independent adoption, whether the statutory findings are met; whether the adoptive parents are fit and proper; whether the best interests of the person to be adopted will be served; and whether other appropriate matters have been resolved.