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Custody of a Non-related Child

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M

Multimom

Guest
What is the name of your state? TX

My husband and I currently have temporary guardianship of a minor child. Guardianship was granted by the bio mom.

This child will have lived with us for 6 months at the end of January.

How would we go about petitioning the court for Temporary Custody? The child in question will be 15 in March.

Bio-dad is presently in prison.

If possible we would like to do this without an attorney because the cost of legal fees would be prohibitive. If this is the case can I seek assistance from County Legal Aid??
 


B

Boxcarbill

Guest
If you can qualify as an indigent (within Legal Aid's or West Texas Legal Service's definition) then, yes, you can get them to represent you. I answered this post before and I will repeat that you should get an attorney handle the case. The dad can waive service of process and sign off on the Agreed Order while in prison. Of course, I must warn you that it is not unusual for an inmate to seize the opportunity to make a little trip out of a court proceeding so he may refuse to sign. Below is the recopy of the prior posts.

Boxcarbill
Member

Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 230
e: Temporary Guardianship
Multimom said:
What is the name of your state? Texas

My husband and I have had Temporary Guardianship of a minor child (now aged 14) for the last 8 months and the mother has signed a new power of attorney to appoint a temporary guardian naming me and my husband as Temporary Guardians until December 31, 2003.

Is is possible for my husband and I file a petition with the court for permenant guardianship and what documents would the mother be required to sign.

Currently there is a divorce decree granting custody of all 3 children to the father who is in jail. So the mother has the superior right of possession.

The youngest of the 3 children has been permenantly removed from the parents with parental rights having been terminated by CPS. If the parents are agreeable to granting us permenant guardianship or legal custody how would we proceed?

What documents would we need to file and in which court?

Thank you,
O.K. we are in Texas so let's get the terms straight. You're talking about conservatorship not guardianship. Managing conservator (MC) is the parent which has primary physical possession of the child[ren] and the possessory conservator (PC) is the parent with visitations.

So the father is the MC of the children and the mother is the PC of the children (except the youngest child who has had both parents rights terminated.)

You must have the agreement of the father who is the managing conservator as well as the mom, who is next in line for managing conservatorship, to have an agreed modification of conservatorship.

We are not talking about a single document like a Power of Attorney which can be purchased at the local stationary store. I would recommend that you hire a lawyer to be certain that all the legal requirements are met, including determination of the court of proper jurisdiction.

Which was followed by:

COLOR=darkblue] You must have the agreement of the father who is the managing conservator as well as the mom, who is next in line for managing conservatorship, to have an agreed modification of conservatorship. [/COLOR]

Does the family court recognize "managing conservatorship" of an incarcerated parent?
The boy's father has been in jail for over a year and is to remain there for another 2 years. He has no way to exercise his "managing conservator's" rights.

I know he will probably have to sign on anything done through the courts, but right now he doesn't have legal access.


__________________
L. Robertson

Mom to 7



01-04-2003 04:06 PM



Boxcarbill
Member

Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 230
Multimom said:


Does the family court recognize "managing conservatorship" of an incarcerated parent?
The boy's father has been in jail for over a year and is to remain there for another 2 years. He has no way to exercise his "managing conservator's" rights.

I know he will probably have to sign on anything done through the courts, but right now he doesn't have legal access.
He is the managing conservator of the children by virtue of a court order. Until such time as another order is entered by a court with jurisdiction to change custody, he will remain managing conservator.
 
M

Multimom

Guest
Please pardon the double post. I frequent several boards and as such it's not so uncommon for me to forget which board I posted things on.

As much as we care for this boy, it's not financially feasible for us to obtain the services of an attorney.

I guess I didn't realize this would be as complicated as the step-parent adoption we filed for my husband on my eldest son since we weren't seeking to adopt this boy.

I guess I'll just have to rely on the stubborness of a kid who doesn't want to live with his family. In another 13 months he will be of age enough he can tell them where to get off.

Truth is at 15 (which he will be in March) its very difficult to "force" a kid to do anything if he's not willing to comply with your request.
 

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