Court Jurisdiction and Venue for Adoption Petitions

This publication presents an overview of State statutes that designate the appropriate jurisdiction and venue for adoption proceedings. Jurisdiction refers to the type of court that has the authority to hear adoption cases; venue refers to the geographic location of the court. This publication presents a general overview of this aspect of child welfare law. Summaries of laws on this topic for all individual States and U.S. territories are available from the State Statutes Search page.

This publication is a product of the State Statutes Series prepared by Child Welfare Information Gateway. While every attempt has been made to be as complete as possible, additional information on these topics may be in other sections of a State's code as well as agency regulations, case law, and informal practices and procedures.

This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.