Once Upon a Time: A Legal Battle Theory

Hello Fanaticals! This week we are going to be jumping between the woods, and a small rural town in the New England area of the US. Last time I read a sentence like that, it was a mini-series that had become a movie, ironically ALSO about fairytales. However, this week we are going into the Enchanted Forest, and a little place called Storybrooke, Maine.

Once Upon a Time, while it might seem like just another recreation, has a lot of twists and turns that makes it a unique creation. Don't get me started about the Charming Family Tree! Today, though, we are going to look into some potential legal issues of Storybrooke.

One thing we have to keep in mind is that Storybrooke technically does not exist. It was created with a curse and literally appeared out of thin air. Since it is in the US, that means that no one has Social Security numbers despite there clearly being a record hall with birth certificates. This can lead to some potential issues with the world as a whole, and that is what we are going to look at today. Let's look into the Once Upon a Time Legal Battle Theory.

🚩While I, personally, have never been through this situation my mother went through a closed adoption as a child. Obviously, I cannot give legal advice and I would tell anyone who would use this as a means of argument for court that this is absolutely not anything I can advise on so please do not cite this as a legal source. This is all taking what I DO know, what you see and hear in the show, and looking up specific questions in research and throwing it together in a theory. 🚩

Could Regina Really Win a Custody Battle?

If you want to get real, the answer could definitely be a resounding NO. Primarily because if we take into consideration that no one in Storybrooke technically exists, it already brings into question about how Regina even managed to secure the adoption in the first place.

Even if Regina brought in the fact that it was a closed adoption, Emma and Henry still have papers of some sort in our world while Regina does not. Grant it, we can question how Emma has some of that, as she was found by the side of the road and had nothing proving her birth date; but we also know that science and medicine have ways of figuring that out. So, Henry and Emma have birth certificates and SSNs, Regina barely has a birth certificate that isn't even technically legal. As there isn't a huge paper trail on Regina like there is Henry and Emma, her very existence could be called into question and if she is a fugitive of some sort. (Because remember, magic doesn't exist in this world.)

Circling back to the "closed adoption" point, this could get a little bit tricker. However, there are also circumvents around it as well. Realistically, a child of a closed adoption and their biological parents are allowed complete open contact once the child is a legal adult. There are SOME states, though, that if it is proven the child found the parents and initiated contact, it is not a violation of the adoption. In the case of Henry, Emma, herself, got that proof when she went to help Regina search for him, and she pulled all the deleted history from his computer with Regina's permission. Then when they went to speak with Mary-Marget, his teacher, and discovered he had stolen her credit card it was just more proof that he had done it of his own accord.

Due to the fact that Regina is Mayor of Storybrooke, any contestation she would want would HAVE to be done in the "real world" aka, outside of Storybrooke. This can pose a problem in many ways. For one, there is currently a curse that later is proven that no one can leave the town limits. Obviously, Regina had her ways since she went and picked Henry up herself, but outside of that no one else. Which would definitely look super suspicious, as Emma would absolutely bring forward Mary-Margret and Archie as witnesses.

Now, Regina exposed Emma's SEALED history to the town during her run for Sherriff. Going as far as to make comments about how a judge would frown upon it. Here's what Regina fails to think about: that despite the fact that she cast a curse to take them to a land with no magic, and that she rules the town, anything that happens outside of that town is NOT her ruling. In Storybrooke, she could easily take Emma's past and turn it against her; get people to ignore what she has become.

In the real world, the world they became a part of when the curse dropped their new town where it did... There are judges out there would take one look at her history, take another look at her becoming a Bail Bondsperson and then the Sherriff of a small town, and congratulate her. Why? She turned her life around so hard and became an upstanding member of society. While Regina will sit there and say that a judge would never side with her over her past, she doesn't realize that while that may be true in the Enchanted Forest, it's not always true in the real world.

The more information that Emma would bring before a judge of her concerns, she could possibly win. Not only was it Henry that found her (and not the other way around, breaking the rules of a closed adoption), but she had legitimate reasons to be concerned: why did he run away to find her, his lack of friends, the fact that he sees a psychiatrist at his age...

While that last one some might argue with me over, you have to take the situation into consideration. Henry was adopted by a mayor of a town. Obviously, he found out he was adopted but the question stems to WHEN did he find out? Honestly, it makes you wonder when and why Regina told him. I can understand a child needing counseling for that if it causes irreparable damage which still begs the question why she told him so young, but it sounds more like he got it when he started going on about the fairy tales. This could have cause for genuine concern because what is causing the child to be obsessed with something that is not real, especially when they clearly are not living in a struggling childhood where they need an escape from reality?

In bringing that up, there is an episode that basically puts the nail in the coffin for Regina. It's when Archie stands up to her about the fact that she wants to control how he treats his patient. Now, when you're treating a patient for Mental Health, it is very rare that a doctor will allow much outside influence. It is not the same as healing a visible disease where you can say "we've tried this, what about this now" in an effort to find a solution or a cure. Mental Health doesn't work like that.

For Regina to walk into Archie's office and say, I want you to treat my son this way not your way, is highly unethical. It's also a great way to get that specialist to not see your side of things anymore. Obviously, Archie understood that Henry went looking for his birth mother for a reason; something Regina should have understood especially since there was a lot of proof that Emma didn't go looking for him.

When Archie stands up to her, he actually reminds her how much his word holds in a court of law. Meaning, if he chose to state that despite the circumstances of how contact came to be that he felt that Emma was more help than harm to him no matter what Regina thinks, the judge will listen. Especially for how many years he has been treating him because it means that he has listened to A LOT of things.

Overall, this would be a complicated case; however, I believe there would be enough evidence that a judge might side with Emma:

1. Henry reached out to Emma (hard copy proof to shoe this) showing she broke no laws in a closed adoption situation.

2. Emma turned her life around completely from where it was when she gave birth to him.

3. Emma's genuine and logical concerns for Henry and his life, especially since he felt the need to find her.

4. Henry's therapist seemingly might side with the birth mother over the adoptive mother, citing that his adoptive mother is doing more harm than good recently both emotionally and mentally.

5. The potential of the fact that on paper, Regina only partially exists.

Again, I wish to convey that none of this is true legal advice, and any advice you might need I would recommend reaching out to a Bar-Licensed Lawyer.

Going based on theory, though: what do you believe the outcome of this would be? If this case was brought before you and the evidence and testimonies laid out, who would you side with in this? What are your thoughts? Come join our community and discuss it with us! Join me tomorrow, as we take a look into deeper character connections. Until then, keep on theorizing!