Hi,
First post here.

A little history:
I am 40 years old. Mom divorced biological father when I was 2, remarried when I was 3, divorced him a few years later. When I was 3 my step father adopted me. In my teen years I had contact with both my new father as well as my biological. Since then to obtain drivers license, have had it in 3 states including FL, employment, marriage license etc I have used a copy of my Consent for Adoption, a copy of the Final Judgement for Adoption and an original birth certificate with my birth name.

I never really had a second thought about it til recently when my wife said that the copies are getting pretty weathered and wondered what should I do to renew them. So doing some research I found that the Department of Vital Statistics never received the proper paperwork to change the records and reissue a new birth certificate. Knowing that I sent them what I had. They stated it was not a certified copy and that in order to obtain a new birth certificate this would not be enough. So I then called the county clerk and got passed over to the family law division to find out that the adoption records were sealed even though there was no anonymity as biological father was entitled to visitation within the Final Judgement.

So I live in Georgia now and am a contract worker, therefore I get no sick leave/vacation etc. How can I go about getting these records unsealed without spending a ton of cash. The Final Judgement has the Case Number as well as location of where it was recorded. I have tried to find a lawyer in the area but the retainers seemed pretty high for what seems to be an open and shut case and doing it myself will cost a pretty penny due to travel time/expenses, time off work etc.

I am not sure whose responsibility it was in 1974 to report this to the Department of Vital statistics, but now the resposibilty is mine and am looking for cost effective ways to get this done. I have even went so far as to trying to contact my biological and adoptive fathers since they live in the area but have not had any return calls.

What do you guys suggest I do?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.