What Is a Legal Guardianship?

Guardianship is a legal proceeding where one individual is appointed by a court to exercise the legal rights and care for another individual, often a minor child. A guardianship may be established when parents are unable to provide care for their child.

Legal Guardianship in California | Law Offices of Alice A. Salvo

What is Legal Guardianship?

Guardianship is a legal proceeding in which a court appoints one individual to exercise the legal rights of (and provide care for) another individual. Most often, such arrangements are made on behalf of children and adolescents under 18. A typical guardianship example might involve parents who are unable to provide care for their child.

In the greater Los Angeles area (and throughout California), countless young people who have not yet reached adult age face very difficult circumstances.

Some have significant disabilities or medical conditions that make their care quite complex to manage. Others have a parent or parents who, for any number of reasons, are not able to care for them. Such circumstances range from serious illness and sudden death to substance abuse disorders.

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Understanding California Guardianship

The care of all minors in guardianships (not unlike in traditional parent-child dynamics) regularly requires making decisions in the interests of those children.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t necessarily refer to decisions regarding what to have for dinner, or what to wear to school. Instead, a guardian’s care, thoughtfulness, and diligence are necessary for high-impact decisions on behalf of a child or adolescent that can change the course of this individual’s life. Some examples include:

Which school to attend

Whether or not to have a medical procedure done

Where to live

Any individual who hopes to be a guardian must understand the gravity of this responsibility they’re planning to shoulder. An experienced guardianship lawyer can provide a comprehensive overview of what being a guardian entails and the regulations that legal guardians in California must follow.

Setting Up a Legal Guardianship in California

The establishment of a guardianship gives the appointed guardian the legal right (and responsibility) to care for an individual under the age of 18. Also, guardianships sometimes exist to manage the estate of a minor, typically in the event of a parent’s death.

Our law firm can help you determine what type of guardianship is most appropriate for your situation.

In some cases, it may be more prudent to set up a conservatorshipset up a conservatorship. This arrangement involves one court-appointed individual managing another’s financial affairs (like an estate guardianship), but it doesn’t solely apply to minors. It is most often established when the court rules that an individual is mentally or physically incapacitated.

The expert legal team at the law offices of Alice A. Salvo can tackle any guardianship, no matter how complicated the circumstances may be. We have significant experience working with families of children with disabilities, including children with autism, down syndrome, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, speech and language impairments, and other conditions.

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Contact Our Los Angeles Guardianship Attorneys

If there’s a child or other person in your life that you’d like to care for legally, then there is no time to waste.

Both you and this individual need (and deserve) the certainty that comes with arranging a legal guardianship. It will provide everyone with peace of mind and give you the authority you need to make sure the person you care for has all the legal protection and personal guidance they deserve, no matter what circumstances affect the individual’s parents.

The best and most efficient way to make a guardianship legal and official is to work with a Los Angeles guardianship lawyer from the Salvo Law team. We’ll have you with a seasoned attorney who understands what needs to be done, how to do it, and what’s expected of you to fulfill this role.

To learn more about setting up a guardianship for a minor child or conservatorship for an incapacitated adult, please contact us online using the contact form below or call 818-676-9572.