Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Parents and cops

Maybe right away, and maybe never. It depends on your age, your parents� consent or lack of consent, the circumstances of your absence from home (e.g., a disappearance versus staying at a relative or friends�s house), the police�s ability to find you, and other factors.

Under Illinois law, a minor who is absent from home without his or her parent�s consent, can be taken into custody and become the subject of juvenile proceedings, and at that point, the minor often first learns that things have spun way out of his or her control. Do you really want to push this? Are you prepared to accept having the state involved? Do you believe that the state is going to make your life outside home, and beyond your parents� grounding, an easier life for you? Are you prepared to have strangers place you in foster care (one possibility) or other placement? And what if you are taken away from the high school, friends, and family that are familiar to you? Can you accept this?

If you are old enough and independent enough to make the decision to leave home, aren't you old enough and independent enough to become emanicapated in a court of law. Prove to a judge that you are mature and independent, and the police won't track you down at all. If you can't prove you are mature enough to make your case in court, then maybe you should re-consider whether you are sufficiently mature enough to make the decision of whether to abandon your family and run away from home.

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