Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

I have a question that I hope you can help me with. Here is the situation. I live in Georgia and a close friend of mine is having a hard time raising her 14 year old son. He is in trouble off and on, has a bad attitude, will not listen to his mom and puts her down alot because he doesn't have much respect for others, especially women. He is also in an alternative education program for school. His mom is a single mom, in case you need to know that as well. She has also been working with defax for some issues she had in the past. Of everyone in her family, I have been able to control him the best. He used to get mostly low grades, but I have gotten him to get them up to A's and B's. Because I have been able to control him the best, he has been living at my place temporarily. The defax worker that his mom has been working with said that he can not live here because I am not a legal guardian of him and he has to move back to his moms house. His mom agrees that it is best for him to live with me for now in hopes that I can get him going on the right path. He also wants to live here and does not want to live with his mom right now. We went down so I could file for temporary guardianship and his mom also agreed and signed. The defax lady then said he still has to live at his moms until the order is signed by a judge. I finality got him to agree to stay at his moms for now. What his mom and I are wondering is, do we have to go through the court and everything, or can she just sign a notarized letter giving me temporary guardianship and everything will be fine that way? Also, we have seen online where one can sign a power of attorney over her son and that person can then act as a temporary guardian for the child making medical decisions, school enrollment, etc. If that is true, can her and I just go that route and her and I sign a power of attorney giving me the power of attorney over her son and then I can do everything a guardian can do as if we went in front of a judge and then he would also be able to live here temporarily as well until we go in front of the judge? We are trying to do what will help him go down the right path and this is what everyone has agreed on to do but him being at his mothers makes him go backwards again since they constantly fight, etc. Like I said, in the temporary guardian papers that where signed, his mom agreed to this and feels it is best and has signed them, he is 14 so he also signed them requesting that I be his temporary guardian and I have agreed to be his temporary guardian. Any help or recommendations you can give would help us greatly. Thank you in advance for any information or help you can provide us in this matter.


Asked on 11/20/12, 1:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

A child is not a piece of property to be signed over to someone else, like a car. This child and their family already have problems and the oversight of DFACS, so you can either fumble around with the web and forms, and misinformation you have already received, or you get hire a lawyer to prepare the necessary filings to get Court approval and be prepared to address any concerns the Judge or DFACS has with the proposed arrangement. The lawyer will need to know about the "issues in the past" involving DFACS, since obviously no one here knows those important facts.

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Answered on 11/20/12, 2:33 pm


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