How hard is it to terminate guardianship? Legal guardianship remains an important protection that allows one compassionate person to care for another. The practice is most commonly ordered by the courts to ensure adult oversight of minors. Although used to a lesser degree between adults, guardians help people navigate important everyday life decisions.
When the court appoints a friend, relative, or professional from an agency to become the guardian of an adult, it’s often the result of diminishing health or incapacitation. For children, these issues can be added to a disheartening list of problems such as abuse, neglect, abandonment, and becoming wayward. Although the reason the court considers someone a ward in need of protection and care, terminating a guardianship can be an uphill battle.
How To Terminate A Guardianship
It’s essential to keep in mind that adult and minor child guardianships can be vastly different. In large part, that’s due to the underlying reason the court deemed someone a ward of the court in the first place.
In both types of guardianship, the basic premise is that the individual cannot conduct reasonable self-care. This may be true of both minors and adults, but most children have parents in place to act in their best interest. When our valued elders, for example, begin to lose the physical and cognitive skills to make salient health, wellness, and financial decisions, oversight may be necessary. Other adults may temporarily fall ill, and the protections are put in place only until they recover.
When children go astray, become incapacitated, or a parent is unable to provide proper care for them, guardianship tends to be a stop-gap measure. Either the situation corrects itself, or the minor eventually becomes an adult and takes on their own decision-making. In either case, the court will need to be formally petitioned to end a guardianship.
How to Terminate an Adult Guardianship
In order to understand how to navigate the stringent legal process of ending a guardianship, it’s essential to consider how you got here. In all likelihood, either a third party petitioned the court and won a case against you to deem you incompetent, or you came to the process voluntarily. This difference has a substantial impact on termination.
Going to the court and asking to be voluntarily deemed a ward came with certain advantages. You probably had input about who would become your guardian during your recovery. And, your wishes about what areas this person would hold legal sway may have been negotiated. Terminating a voluntary guardianship often entails merely proving you have regained competence.
On the other hand, involuntary tracts could mean that you will face increased resistance from the party or parties that petitioned the court in the first place. That may mean overcoming objections as well as having documentation and testimony from experts that you are prepared to resume control over your affairs. These are common steps that are required to terminate a guardianship.
- File Legal Papers: A Petition to Terminate Guardianship, and a Citation or a Notice of Hearing, will need to be crafted and filed on your behalf. Supporting documents may be required to gain a hearing. Materials may include a final accounting report. If your guardian or conservator oversaw your estate while recovering, a final reckoning of all financial records must accompany your petition. Papers may call for letters from you’re your physicians. Your doctors must provide statements that assert you have regained the ability to conduct your own affairs competently.
- Serve Guardian & Others with Papers: All relevant parties must be formally notified that you have petitioned to terminate the guardianship via certified mail. If this step is not thoroughly completed, a judge will likely not hear your case.
- Attend a Hearing: The judge will read the pertinent documents and likely ask questions. If others object to the petition, more comprehensive testimony may be required. Once the judge has been satisfied that you meet the legal standard, an Order Terminating Guardianship will be issued.
If the guardianship pertained to end-of-life considerations, the court generally requires a financial accounting before releasing the guardian. The challenges confronting parents or other loved ones trying to terminate a guardianship and regain custody can be significantly different.
How to Terminate Guardianship Over a Minor
In order to restore your parental rights and regain custody of a child, you may be tasked with petitioning the court to terminate a guardianship. Much like when adults are deemed wards of the court, the reason your child has a guardian in place will likely impact how difficult you can anticipate the process ahead.
For instance, if another family member petitioned the court to have your child made a ward, the underlying claims will likely need to be adequately addressed. If it involved substance abuse, neglect, or a health condition, a proactive filing and subsequent argument at a formal hearing would have to overcome the initial court findings. In other words, you face an uphill battle of basically proving your ability to properly care for yourself and the child. The goal of this rigorous process will involve persuading the court of the following.
- The adverse situation has been resolved
- It’s in the child’s best interest to be placed with a parent
- You can successfully provide for daily health, wellness, and emotional needs of the child
- You are financially stable or are receiving adequate public assistance
- You enjoy positive extended family and community relationships
The process of regaining parental rights and terminating a guardianship requires crafting a highly persuasive petition and supplying authoritative supporting documents, as well as possible witness testimony. There are also a variety of legal pathways that can be accessed, depending on how and why you got to this point.
- When Guardians Object: In cases in which the court-appointed guardian objects to their removal, a full hearing may be required. This brings together the key stakeholders in the process to determine whether to keep court oversight in place or give your child back to you.
- When Guardians Agree to Termination: In such cases, parents need only demonstrate that they are competent and able to serve the best interest of their child in a stable and healthy fashion.
- Terminating for Adoption, Marriage, or Service: The act of adoption effectively ends ward of the court status. The same holds true in marriage, and minors who enlist in the military enjoy grounds to terminate the guardianship over them.
- When a Child Turns 18 Years Old: When a minor reaches the age of majority, they are no longer a ward of the court and the guardianship times out. The court-appointed person would be wise to file a notice with the court.
- Guardianships Over Estates at 18 Years Old: Control over assets does not generally end when a minor turns 18 years old. The court will need to be petitioned, and a final accounting of the finances must be filed. The court must issue a directive releasing the assets before the previous ward can access them.
- Cases of Emancipated Minors: When the court agrees to emancipate a minor, they no longer are deemed a ward of the court. Part of the hearing should include the automatic termination of the guardianship.
In some cases, the court-appointed person finds that they can no longer serve in that capacity. This could be due to illness, relocation, or they believe terminating the guardianship is in the minor’s best interest. The court enjoys great latitude in such cases and may decide to resolve the matter in a number of ways. The court may agree that the minor no longer needs or benefits from oversight. In many instances, the court appoints a new guardian to take over the responsibilities.
Should You Speak with an Attorney to Terminate a Guardianship?
The short answer is: Yes. That’s because the court system involves complex filings, documentation, and bureaucracies that are difficult for everyday people to navigate. A simple missing document or misstep can upend your efforts to terminate a guardianship. It’s in your best interest to have a determined and compassionate attorney who works in the family courts on a daily basis. That experience allows us to put forward the best case possible on your behalf and get the results you deserve. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.