On Oct 24, 7:21 am, digitalr...@yahoo.com wrote:
> [court officials] informed me that it is extremely
> rare--extremely extremely rare--for an adult child
> to petition the Court [in a guardianship case for
> the elderly parent]. At first, according to the
> administrative assistant for the Court, it "just
> isn't allowed."
I don't remember all the details of your earlier posts so this may be a bit inaccurate in some details. But I'll try to give you some perspective on what may be going on here. IIRC you had previously acted as a live-in caretaker for your elderly mother, without any formal adjudication of her competency ever having taken place, and then at some point the State, perhaps at the instigation of your younger sister, stepped in and petitioned the court to make your mother a ward of the state (i.e. to award guardianship over your mother to this state agency).
I think what the court officials were trying to tell you is that you don't have any "standing" in this matter that would give you legal grounds to have any say in the outcome. "Standing" is a complex legal concept but, basically, it means you have no dog in this fight so you are not allowed to intermeddle.
The only real issues in a guardianship case are (1) whether the adult over whom guardianship is sought is competent to handle her own affairs or not, and (2) whether the person (in your mom's case, apparently, the state agency) who applied to be granted the guardianship is a fit guardian.
Your mother, not you, is the person whose competency is being questioned, and she is the one who has the right to counsel, the right to challenge the state's allegations, and the right to try to retain her independence as a competent adult, IF she chooses to do so. But the court will not waste its time deciding whether some other person, such as yourself, claims you might be an even _better_ guardian, nor will it entertain petitions from persons such as yourself who, by reason of being the child of the proposed ward of the state, or by reason of having previously served as her unofficial caretaker, claim you have a legally recognized interest in the matter.
Unless _you_ are the one who petitioned for guardianship in the first place, you don't have any such legally recognized interest. If the court allowed such petitions to intervene, there would be no end to the possibilities of additional claimants who could petition the court to be included in the decision. Hence, the rule limiting "standing" to intervene in a suit, to those directly involved.
> I asked both women why I would not be able to petition the court on
> this matter, if defendants in criminal trials as grave as murder are
> allowed to represent themselves.
You are confusing the concepts of (1) self-representation, which of course everyone has the right to do where you are ALREADY a party to the case and where you DO have a legally recognized interest in its outcome, and (2) standing, the lack of which means you DON'T have such a legally recognized interest to participate in the proceedings at all. The guardianship hearing does not involve you, it involves your mother.
If you were the party originally petitioning the court to award you guardianship over your (allegedly incompetent) mother, you would be legally permitted to represent yourself in that petition, although IMO it would be foolish. If that were the case, your mother would be an ADVERSE party to you -- your opponent -- and she would have the right to separate counsel to protect her rights against YOUR claims. But once the state has petitioned to do so, you have no right to intervene in THEIR suit, to become a party to that suit yourself. Since you claim to be on the same side as your mom, though, you can, with her permission of course, hire counsel to represent HER in the matter, and to argue the points you say you want to argue, on HER behalf, not yours.
> If anyone could tell me where in the state code self-representation in
> custody cases is *DISALLOWED,* I would be very grateful.
Wrong assumptions, again, I'm afraid. This is not a custody case, it is a guardianship case, in which there are only TWO parties, the state and your mom; you are not a party. This is UNLIKE custody cases, where there are usually THREE parties, i.e. the mother, the father, and the minor child, and the 2 parents argue over which one of them gets to keep custody of the child.
This is not a contest between you and the state over who gets to keep your mom. This is simply a suit, between your mom and the state, to determine whether your mom gets to "keep" herself as an independent-decision-making adult, or whether the state will be legally granted the right to make some of those decisions for her (i.e., guardianship). In making that decision, the court is supposed to keep your mom's best interests foremost.
What are your options? I gather you claim that your mother has some interest in the matter that is not being adequately represented currently. You are not an attorney, so you CANNOT step in and argue for HER rights in this matter; that would be representing your mom, not representing yourself. But, if you care enough about the matter and IF your mom agrees to let you, you can hire an attorney to represent her, and then he can enter his appearance in the case, AS COUNSEL FOR your mom and not as a separate party, so that he can argue on her behalf. Sorry, but that's the only way you can do it.
If your mother lacks resources to hire counsel, there may be local agencies that will provide her with counsel for free or at a reduced fee. But of course your mom has to agree to be represented, and has to agree to your help in finding her some representation, if you are to have any role in bringing someone in to represent her. If she has already decided she does not want you to do this, there is not much you can do besides look on.
Good luck getting this all sorted out. Just try to remember, it's not about you, it's about your mom.
--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult your own lawyer in a private communication.
Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300
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