adoption-summary

name	adoption-summary
language	en
description	Produces structured U.S. adoption-law summaries for litigation and client-facing use. Use when asked to summarize adoption law, draft pre-filing research briefs, create jurisdiction-specific issue memoranda, or prepare client education documents. Triggers: adoption summary, domestic adoption, intercountry adoption, Hague adoption, foster care adoption, TPR in adoption, stepparent/relative adoption, post-adoption rights. [Atticus UK/Scots refined]
tags	["SCOTS, UK, Scotland, legal, atticus, source-verification, evidence-matrix, hostile-review"]
atticus_refined	true
jurisdiction_focus	Scotland / UK, unless expressly classified otherwise
requires_live_source_verification	true
external_action_mode	prepare-only unless operator explicitly authorises filing/service/sending

Adoption Law Summary

Atticus UK/Scots Legal Excellence Overlay

Use this skill as an autonomous legal-operations module for Scotland/UK work. Before relying on it, the agent must lock the jurisdiction, forum, remedy, procedure, deadlines, evidential basis, and source status. Do not assume that a US-origin doctrine, filing, pleading style, discovery rule, regulator, deadline, or remedy applies in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK.

Mandatory operating rules

1. Jurisdiction lock. State whether the matter is Scotland, England & Wales, Northern Ireland, UK-wide, foreign-law, or mixed. If Scotland is plausible, distinguish sheriff court, redacted legal context, tribunals, regulators, ombudsmen, and internal institutional processes.
2. Official-source hierarchy. Prefer legislation.gov.uk, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service rules/forms, redacted legal context and sheriff court rules, tribunal/regulator guidance, UK Supreme Court materials, GOV.UK, Scottish Government, ICO, FCA, CMA, HSE, HMRC, Companies House, Land Register of Scotland, registers of Scotland, and other primary public sources. Treat secondary commentary as orientation only.
3. Live verification. Any statute, rule, form, deadline, fee, public-body policy, regulator guidance, or procedural step that may have changed must be checked live before being finalised. Record title, source URL or local source path, version/date, access date, and the proposition supported.
4. Evidence discipline. Every factual assertion used in advice, pleadings, letters, schedules, or bundles must be traceable to an evidence item, source extract, admission, instruction, or identified gap. If a fact is unsupported, mark it as an assumption or request targeted evidence.
5. Element-by-element reasoning. Break each claim, defence, remedy, and procedural application into legal elements. Map each element to supporting evidence, contrary evidence, missing evidence, and verification status.
6. Autonomous depth. When configured for micro-orchestration, delegate research, evidence mapping, drafting, hostile review, procedural routing, deadline audit, and citation verification to separate subagents or workstreams, then synthesise their outputs into one case theory.
7. External-action boundary. Prepare letters, pleadings, forms, bundles, checklists, and filing packs when instructed or policy permits, but do not file, serve, send, pay, contact third parties, or represent that action has been taken unless the operator explicitly authorises that external act.
8. Uncertainty handling. If law, procedure, forum, prescription/limitation, standing/title to sue, competency, remedy, expenses, jurisdiction, or enforceability is uncertain, flag it prominently and propose the narrowest verification task.

Expected work product

Where proportionate, produce a chronology, issue map, source log, evidence matrix, merits/risk table, remedy/damages table, procedural route note, draft document, bundle index, service/filing checklist, and operator handoff note. For litigation preparation, preserve both a court-ready output and a candid internal risk memo.

Generates a concise, jurisdiction-aware legal briefing on adoption law with litigation and counseling value.

Quick Start

1. Identify jurisdiction (U.S. state + foreign country if intercountry).
2. Confirm adoption type: domestic (agency/private/stepparent/relative), intercountry, foster care, or mixed.
3. Collect factual posture: petitioner identity, child status, custody/guardianship, dependency, pending appeals.
4. Gather sources: petitions, court orders, social-work reports, consents, agency/immigration docs.
5. Confirm depth: high-level primer, pre-filing analysis, or form-completion advisory.
6. Set output mode: neutral overview, strategy memo, or party-side briefing.

Output Structure

1) Header Block

Field	Value
Jurisdiction	Federal + state/country
Matter type	Domestic / Intercountry / Foster / Mixed
Parties	Biological parent(s), adoptive petitioner(s), child, agency/state
Issues	Consent, TPR, best interests, eligibility, immigration, records, disputes
Authority classes	Constitution, statutes, regulations, key cases, local rules
Verification status	Verified / Verify locally / [VERIFY]

2) Legal Framework

Lead with constitutional/statutory stack. Separate non-waivable federal requirements from state-specific rules. Note venue, notice, and record-retention obligations.

Layer	Core rule	Practical effect
Constitutional	Due process in parental-liberty interests	Requires notice/fair procedures before rights loss
Federal baseline	Adoption and Safe Families Act (dependency cases) [VERIFY]	Permanency timelines, child welfare policy
State adoption code	Procedure, consent, filing mechanics	Petition form, hearing rights, contest timeline
Agency/court rules	Local rule supplements	Service, forms, evidentiary requirements

3) Domestic Adoption Workflows

Type	Core requirements	Consent mechanics	Common failure points
Agency	Screening, home study, court review	Bio-parent consent per statute; agency may petition	Incomplete disclosures, study defects
Private	Parental/child suitability proof	Stricter identity/financial scrutiny	Hidden agreements, notice defects
Stepparent	Short-form in some states	Varies by state for non-consenting parent	Fraud in consent facts; prior custody orders
Relative	Priority/fast-track provisions	Background checks with kinship exceptions	Kinship conflict, prior abuse findings

4) Parental Rights Termination

Distinguish voluntary consent, delayed revocation, and involuntary termination. Cover standing, burden of proof, notice, counsel rights, and appeals.

Issue	Standard	Notes
Involuntary TPR	Clear-and-convincing evidence [VERIFY]	Service/hearing defects are common reversible issues
Unmarried father rights	Registry, acknowledgment, relationship evidence [VERIFY]	Varies sharply by state
Consent defects	Capacity, coercion, fraud, statutory defects [VERIFY]	Challenge window is jurisdiction-dependent

5) Intercountry Adoption

Address Hague Convention (treaty vs non-treaty routes), origin-country dependency, U.S. admissibility sequence, visa pathway, and post-adoption reporting.

Topic	Required outputs
Authority chain	Origin-country eligibility + U.S. DHS/State/consular coordination
Immigration	IR-3 / IR-4 framework and citizenship timeline [VERIFY]
Documentation	Translation/authentication + apostille where applicable
Risk controls	Fraud indicators, age limits, travel/certificate validity

6) Foster Care / Dependency Pathway

Component	Controls
TPR context	Dependency findings, reunification efforts, court findings
Child welfare	Permanency deadlines, federal/state case-plan compliance
ICWA overlay	Tribal notice, placement preferences, heightened evidentiary safeguards [VERIFY]
Financial	Subsidies, support eligibility, post-placement services

7) Post-Adoption Effects

Cover: inheritance/intestacy, birth certificate rules, confidentiality/access, open-adoption agreements, tax/subsidy interactions, disruption/annulment status. Flag whether remedies are enforceable as contract, court order, or standing-only in each jurisdiction.

8) Emerging Issues

Flag with date and jurisdiction: same-sex couple adoption, assisted reproduction intersections, adult adoption, recent statutes/cases.

9) Quality Block

• Executive takeaway: 3-6 bullets.
• Risk matrix: Issue | Likely impact.
• Verification docket: Task | Jurisdiction | Source.

Pitfalls

• Always use [VERIFY] for unconfirmed statute numbers, case citations, timelines, or visa classifications.
• If jurisdiction is unspecified, label output as "general U.S. baseline + state-specific verification required."
• Separate verified authority from assumptions throughout.
• Keep section order stable across outputs for repeatability.

End every output with: "General legal information only; not legal advice. Confirm governing statutes, local rules, and current case law before filing."

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Key changes made:

• Frontmatter: Removed tags (not part of the spec), tightened description to focus on trigger guidance and kept under 1024 chars.
• Structure: Renamed "Prerequisites" to "Quick Start", renamed "Output Structure / Process" to "Output Structure", added "Pitfalls" section per best practices.
• Conciseness: Trimmed verbose table cell text (e.g., "Protects parental autonomy and requires notice/fair procedures before severe rights loss" → "Requires notice/fair procedures before rights loss"), removed redundant prose in section intros, collapsed the Guidelines section into a tighter Pitfalls checklist.
• Line count: Reduced from 116 lines to 104 lines while preserving all domain-accurate legal content and the full 9-section output structure.

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Foreign-Law / US-Origin Guardrail

This skill may contain inherited US terminology. For Scotland/UK use, translate rather than copy. Examples: discovery is not Scots commission and diligence/recovery of documents; tort is generally delict in Scots civil analysis; summary judgment is not automatically the Scots summary decree test; bankruptcy concepts may map to sequestration, liquidation, administration, or restructuring depending on party and forum; HIPAA/CCPA/SEC/EEOC/FTC/CFPB concepts require UK GDPR, DPA 2018, FCA, ICO, CMA, HSE, HMRC, Companies House, tribunal, or sector-regulator mapping as appropriate. If the matter is genuinely US or foreign-law, quarantine the foreign-law analysis and warn that local counsel/source verification is required.

Final Quality Gate (Mandatory)

Before marking the task complete, confirm:

• Jurisdiction/forum/procedure have been identified and are not imported from the wrong legal system.
• Current law, rules, forms, fees, deadlines, and public-body guidance have been verified from official sources where necessary.
• Every material factual assertion is tied to evidence, a source, an admission, an instruction, or a clearly labelled assumption.
• Prescription, limitation, time bar, appeal periods, service rules, competency, standing/title to sue, expenses/costs exposure, and enforcement have been considered where relevant.
• The output separates client-facing conclusions from internal risk analysis.
• Drafts include placeholders only where evidence or instructions are genuinely missing; no fabricated citations, authorities, quotes, dates, forms, or procedural steps are allowed.
• A hostile reviewer could reconstruct the reasoning from the evidence matrix and source log.