The court must set an adoption hearing, require the petitioner and adoptee to appear, and can issue a final adoption judgment if the listed findings are met.
(a) The petition for adoption shall be set for a dispositional hearing within a reasonable period after the filing of the petition and all necessary documents, including an investigative report if ordered by the court. (b) The court shall enter an order establishing a date, time, and place for the hearing on the petition, and each petitioner and the individual to be adopted shall appear at the hearing in person. If the court determines that such appearance is impossible or impractical, appearance may be made by electronic means, upon good cause shown to the court. (c) At the dispositional hearing, the court shall grant a final judgment of adoption if it finds each of the following based on clear and convincing evidence: (1) The adoptee meets one of the qualifications under Section 26-10F-6. (2) The required consents and all other necessary documents have been properly executed and have been filed with the court. The necessary documents shall include, but are not limited to, each of the following: a. The petition for adoption. b. All required consents. c. Proof of service of notice on all persons required to receive notice. d. Marriage certificates of the petitioners and adoptee, if applicable. e. Copies of certified birth certificates or the equivalent thereof of each petitioner and adoptee, issued within six months of the filing of the petition. f. The Alabama Report of Adoption Form. g. Proof of incapacity or total and permanent disability, if applicable. h. Proof of kinship or a de facto parent and child relationship pursuant to Section 26-10F-6, if applicable. i. Any other documentation required by the court. (3) Any contests have been resolved in favor of the petitioner or petitioners. (4) That each petitioner is a suitable adopting parent and desires to establish a legal parent and child relationship between himself or herself and the adoptee. (5) That all parties, to the best of their ability, understand the significance and ramifications of the adoption and are not acting under duress, coercion, or undue influence. (6) That the best interest of the adoptee is served by the adoption and that there is no reason in the public interest or otherwise why the petition should not be granted. (7) That all other requirements of this chapter have been met. (d) If all the requirements of subsection (c) are met, the court may enter its finding in a written final judgment of adoption, granting the petition for adoption. (e) The final judgment of adoption shall terminate the parent and child relationship of one or both of the legal parents of the adoptee and shall order the substitution of the name of each legal parent whose relationship has been terminated on the amended birth certificate with the name of each petitioner. There shall be no more than two individuals named as petitioner. (f) If the court grants the adoptee’s request for a new name, the adoptee’s new name shall be included in the final judgment of adoption and placed on the amended birth certificate. (g) The final judgment of adoption shall further order that from the date of the judgment of adoption, the adoptee shall be the child of the petitioner or petitioners, and that the adoptee shall be accorded the status set forth in Section 26-10F-16(b). (h) A final judgment of adoption may not be collaterally attacked after the expiration of one year from the entry of the final judgment of adoption, and after all appeals, if any, except in each of the following situations: (1) Fraud relating to the adoption proceedings. (2) The adoptee has been kidnapped. (3) An adoptive parent subsequent to the final judgment of adoption has been convicted of a sexual offense, as provided in Section 15-20A-5, involving the adoptee.