Conventional wisdom says that minors are the legal responsibility of their parents or other close relatives who legally establish custody of them, but adults are the masters of their own destiny, and the court does not interfere with their decision-making authority unless they are convicted of a serious crime. The truth is more complicated than that. It is true that, if you complain to the court that you shell out tens of thousands of dollars every year for your son’s college education, while your ex-spouse does not contribute a penny, the court will say, “Tough luck.” Meanwhile, the courts of Arizona will appoint a family member or non-family caregiver as a guardian for a vulnerable adult when the court determines that this is the best way to protect the adult ward from physical or financial abuse. For help becoming the guardian of a minor who is not your biological or adopted child, contact a Mesa child custody lawyer.
Establishing Guardianship of a Vulnerable Adult
Arizona law allows the courts to appoint a guardian to have decision-making authority over a vulnerable adult in a similar capacity to how a child’s legal parent has decision-making authority over a minor child. In the context of child custody and co-parenting, this authority to make decisions is called legal custody. In an adult guardianship relationship, the person under guardianship and subject to the decision-making authority of another adult is called the ward. For example, the guardian has the right to make decisions about the ward’s housing situation, medical care, and expenses.
Everyone about whom someone petitions the court is, by nature, a vulnerable adult, but not all vulnerable adults end up under guardianship. Arizona law defines a vulnerable adult as a person who is at least 18 years old and who, because of a physical or mental illness or disability, is at a heightened risk of neglect or of becoming a target of financial exploitation or physical or sexual abuse. Plenty of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses are legally and financially independent in Arizona, as in other states.
To become the legal guardian of a vulnerable adult, you should submit a petition for guardianship to the court. It should indicate why you think the vulnerable adult needs a guardian and why you are in a strong position to fulfill the role of guardian successfully. You can request general guardianship, where you have all the same responsibilities for the ward that a legal parent has for a minor child. If the vulnerable adult does not require general guardianship, you can request limited guardianship, where you take on some decision-making responsibilities related to the ward, but the ward remains responsible for other decisions.
The Rights of Adults for Whom Others Want to Establish Guardianship
It would be a nightmare if someone else could unilaterally take away an adult’s legal autonomy and return him or her to the same state of dependency as a minor child. This is not how the process of appointing a guardian works. The state cannot take away your authority over your own decisions without due process of law. Therefore, the court must hold a hearing about guardianship for a vulnerable adult before declaring the vulnerable adult legally incompetent and appointing another adult as the vulnerable adult’s guardian. At least 14 days before the hearing, the petitioner must provide written notice of the upcoming hearing to the vulnerable adult and his or her close family members or caregivers.
The vulnerable adult has the right to contest the guardianship petition and to argue that he or she deserves to retain his or her status as a legally competent adult instead of becoming a ward subject to someone else’s guardianship. The vulnerable adult has the right to hire a lawyer to represent him or her at the hearing and to provide evidence of his or her legal competency, as well as to summon witnesses to attest to it.
Becoming a Guardian for a Minor When You Are Not His or Her Legal Parent
Under ordinary circumstances, the two legal parents of a child have the authority to make decisions about the child’s housing situation, medical care, and education. This is why, when the parents of a minor child get divorced, the court issues a parenting plan dividing decision-making authority between the parents. A legal parent is either the genetic parent of a child or someone who has legally adopted the child or filed a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity with the court.
It is possible for the legal parents to assign someone else the role of legal guardian of their child, even without the court terminating the legal parents’ status as legal parents. They can do this by filing “consent guardianship” paperwork. Legal parents might do this if they need to reside outside of Arizona for an extended period because of work or family caregiving obligations, but they want the children to remain in Arizona under someone else’s care. When the court appoints a guardian by consent guardianship, the guardianship remains in place until the child turns 18 or until the legal parents file a petition to withdraw consent guardianship.
The other process is called “custody by non-parent.” In this case, the burden of proof is on the prospective guardian to persuade the court why he or she should be the children’s legal guardian instead of the child’s legal parents fulfilling this role. If the court appoints a non-parent as legal guardian, it is possible for the legal parents to restore their status as legal guardians. To do this, they must go back to court and provide compelling evidence that the circumstances that led to the court appointing a non-parent guardian have changed, and the legal parents are now in a position to care for the children.
Contact Modern Law About Guardianship of Children and Vulnerable Adults
A family law attorney can help you request to become the legal guardian of a minor child or a vulnerable adult. Contact Modern Law in Mesa, Arizona, to discuss your case.
