63.102  Filing of petition; venue; proceeding for approval of fees and costs.--

(1)  A proceeding for adoption shall be commenced by filing a petition entitled, "In the Matter of the Adoption of _____" in the circuit court. The person to be adopted shall be designated in the caption in the name by which he or she is to be known if the petition is granted. If the child is placed for adoption by an agency, any name by which the child was previously known shall not be disclosed in the petition, the notice of hearing, or the judgment of adoption.

(2)  A petition for adoption or for a declaratory statement as to the adoption contract shall be filed in the county where the petitioner or petitioners or the child resides or where the agency in which the child has been placed is located.

(3)  Except for adoptions involving placement of a child with a relative within the third degree of consanguinity, a petition for adoption in an adoption handled by an intermediary shall be filed within 30 working days after placement of a child with a parent seeking to adopt the child. If no petition is filed within 30 days, any interested party, including the state, may file an action challenging the prospective adoptive parent's physical custody of the child.

(4)  If the filing of the petition for adoption or for a declaratory statement as to the adoption contract in the county where the petitioner or child resides would tend to endanger the privacy of the petitioner or child, the petition for adoption may be filed in a different county, provided the substantive rights of any person will not thereby be affected.

(5)  A proceeding for prior approval of fees and costs may be commenced any time after an agreement is reached between the birth mother and the adoptive parents by filing a petition for declaratory statement on the agreement entitled "In the Matter of the Proposed Adoption of a Minor Child" in the circuit court. If a petition for adoption is subsequently filed, the petition for declaratory statement and the petition for adoption must be consolidated into one case.