Cherokee County Superior Court, Georgia Electronic Filing Rules

Civil cases

Applies to

Background check results

Covered adoption petitioners must complete fingerprint-based NCIC and GCIC background checks and submit the results electronically to the assigned judge’s office; specified prior checks and certain adoption types are exempt from a new check.

Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 19-8-16, each Petitioner in any agency (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-4), third party (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-5), stepparent (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-6), or relative (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-7) adoption shall submit to and complete a fingerprint-based criminal background check by both the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) and shall cause the results to be submitted electronically to the assigned Judge’s office. However, in the event a Petitioner for third-party adoption under O.C.G.A § 19-8-5 has submitted to criminal background checks withing the 12 months immediately preceding the filing of the Petition for the purpose of completing the home study, and whose results have been included in the home study report, and which home study report has been made available to the Court, that Petitioner shall not be required to submit to a new background check. In each case in which a new fingerprint-based background check is required, the background check shall be conducted as provided by law at a Georgia Applicant Processing Service (GAPS) location. Each Petitioner or their attorney should follow the instructions listed at www.cherokeecountyga.gov/Court-Administrators-Office/Adoption. Upon receipt of the results of a background check, the Judge will review the results in camera and the Judge WILL NOT file a copy of the results upon the case record. In Petitions for the domestication of foreign adoption decrees (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-8) and in adult adoptions (O.C.G.A. § 19-8-21), no background check shall be required.