QUESTION
If I have been raising my friend’s daughter since she was 6 months old, do I have any guardianship rights?
Asked on Mar 07th, 2017 on Child Custody - California
More details to this question:
I have been raising my friend’s daughter since she was 6 months old. She is now 6 years old. She knows me as her mother and I love her like she was mine. My friend (father) comes over to visit a couple times a week and that is the only time she spends with him. My friend is on permanent disability so the child receives $800 a month from SSDI, which my friend gives to me to help support the child. I want to adopt her but he will not let me. When she was born her birth mother did a safe surrender birth so the birth mother has no ties to her whatsoever. She is my world and I am so worried someday he may decide he wants her to come live with him.
1 ANSWER
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You can file a Petition to the Court to be named the legal guardian of the child. If a guardianship is approved then it would mostly likely stay in place in the future. In a guardianship case, the court can grant and make orders for visitation for the father. The risk of requesting the guardianship is if it is opposed by father then he may request custody. You should probably speak with the father if he will consent to a guardianship so you will have legal rights to assist in school enrollment, passports, driver's license and medical decision issues.
Answered on May 24th, 2017 at 5:30 AM