When my daughter was 17, she was conned into signing a paper for someone to seek medical attention for her child, in her absence, but, under that paper was another one saying she was giving her child's custody to the people... she was young and very impressionable, and these people went to a judge and said she had abandoned her child, and got custody of her... now, that child is 15 and knows the truth, she still has her birth name and wishes to be with her birth mother... what are their rights and how do they go about getting reunited?

First something wrong, it does not work like that, she could not just "sign" a paper that someone took to a judge,

There would have to had been an entire court hearing, evidence presented, daughter would have had ability to testifyin court and more.

Sounds like either
1. this is a made up story
2. someone scamed her and you years ago with fake paper work


Has anyone ever went to the court and saw actual court documents,

I completely agree with fr_chuck. That simply isn't the way it works. So, for starters your daughter needs to go to the county clerks office to find out what court this took place in and get a copy of all the orders made (if there really are any). Did she go to court at all? Did she get a summons from the court? There are a lot of steps missing (possibly that you just haven't mentioned) that would have made this a legal adoption.

I'm wondering if this WAS an adoption, or just a legal guardianship/custody arrangement.

I do think, though, that after 15 years, your daughter needs to consider what is in the best interests of her child. Is it REALLY to uproot her from the only parents she's known?

And really--why did it take her 15 years to start to do something about it?

If it WAS an adoption, she had to sign away her parental rights, in a court. I know from PERSONAL experience that they ask you SEVERAL times if you understand what is going on. Your daughter would have ALSO had a guardian ad litem appointed to represent her interests in court who would make SURE she understood what relinquishing parental rights meant.

I really recommend a lawyer for this. ESPECIALLY after 15 years.