TITLE XII
PUBLIC SAFETY AND WELFARE

CHAPTER 170-B
ADOPTION

Section 170-B:23

    170-B:23 Confidentiality of Records. –
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 RSA 170-B:24.
III. Nothing contained in this section or RSA 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.

Source. 2004, 255:1, eff. Jan. 2, 2005.