Art. 1262 Grounds

Once a court finalizes an adoption, that decision is meant to stay in place for good. This rule limits the ways someone can challenge or cancel a completed adoption. The only reasons a court will consider undoing it are fraud or duress.

Fraud means someone lied about important facts or tricked another person into agreeing to the adoption. Duress means someone was forced or threatened into going along with it against their will. If neither of these applies, the adoption cannot be reversed, even if someone later changes their mind or new information comes up. This rule exists to give children and adoptive families stability, so an adoption cannot be questioned years later without a very serious reason.