Legal Question in Family Law in California

Looking for information on the rights of my little niece and nephew:

* Regarding a 3 year old and 8 year old

* I am in Southern California

* Their mother, my niece, 30 years old, is constantly everywhere but with her children. She claims she is working but she isn't plus she is constantly lying whereabouts and our family believes she is bipolar because of her up and down mood swings.

* She verbally abuses the 8 year old, there is nothing he can do that is right in her eyes

* She claims she has 3 part time jobs which causes her to leave her kids with their grandparents or myself, her aunt.

* Today as she was leaving to take the kids to her new boyfriends home, which the kids did not want to go to, she was berating the 8 year old and went so far as to kick him and make him cry.

* My niece has full custody of the kids, although she's never taken the kids deadbeat dads to court. The fathers of the children are 2 different men that are completely irresponsible and both have prison records.

Our family can no longer sit by and allow this abuse to continue to happen, do these children have any rights, how can we protect them while their Mom maybe someday gets her act together?

Thank you for your time.

LG

Long Beach, CA


Asked on 4/04/10, 9:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You can petition the courts to name you as guardian of the children until the mother gets things together. Once you are legal guardian you would also have standing to take the deadbeat dads to court and make them support their kids. If the mother contests the guardianship, however, there is no guarantee you would win.

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Answered on 4/09/10, 9:17 pm


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