Parents Don’t Have to Sign Off on a Guardianship
Video Transcribed: Do both parents need to sign off on a temporary guardianship. Hi, this is Tulsa Attorney Justin Mosteller with grandparents.attorney. I’m going to spend a few minutes today talking with you about this issue.
Now, generally speaking, parents don’t have to sign off on a guardianship. If they’re objecting to it, which is common, they actually have the opportunity to go into court and contest the guardianship, and saying, “No, I am available,” or, “I am fit and we do not believe that a guardianship is necessary in this case.”
But in situations where parents actually do agree that a guardianship is necessary, say for instance, in a situation where a parent has a drug addiction that they’re working on and they know that in the meantime while they’re in the grips of this addiction, it makes sense for someone else to step up and take care of the child.
And that parent would likely consent to a guardianship for the best interest of that child, the best thing for the child.
In those situations, the parent would sign a consent to the guardianship, which would then be filed into the guardianship case, which would be the record that one, the parent was served and notified of the proceeding and two, that parent consented to it.
Now in cases where you have parents that are at cross-purposes, so one parent agrees and one parent does not, you would file the consent of one parent into the guardianship and then you would have a hearing based on the objections of the other parent, and that happens a lot in these cases.
A lot of guardianships start out with grandparents, obviously, because grandparents by statute are listed as preference for placement of a child. If the parent is unfit or unavailable, grandparents are actually the second choice.
And when those cases present, oftentimes the grandparent comes in with their biological child, the parents of the grandchild, who then says, “I know that this is necessary, I’m unfit or unavailable right now, and I know that the other parent is too, but they’re going to contest it.”
That fact pattern is very common in family law and it’s something that we’re absolutely prepared to deal with, and you should be too if you’re planning on pursuing the guardianship of your grandchildren.
In those situations, you file the consent of one parent and you ready a hearing against the other parent, and you proceed in that manner. Hopefully this answers your question, but if it didn’t, feel free to reach out to our office. We can be reached at (918) 932-2800.