Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

if my cousin signed her rights to me could i get her kids

my cousin gave her boyfriends mom guardianship over her kids till she could get on her feet. the court left visitation up to the boyfriends mom. heather, my cousin never gets to see her 2 kids and none of our family can either. only one of the kids is related to the women who has them. would it be easy for me to get the one that isn't related or could i get them both if heather signed her rights over to me. i think the one that is not related is very mistreated. the women that has the kids is bipolar and plays mind games with the kids. she has told the kids there mother doesn't want them. she never lets the mother see them. heather doesnt have the money to go to court but she is capable of taking care of the children. she is behind on child support. i would gladly take the kids but i dont want to get an attorney if its not possible for me because i have no rights to the kids. sherrie the lady that has the kids is on disability and takes meds for being bipolar, is she unfit? also there has is on some land and they us it as a dump sight, it looks very unsafe for kids to be playing in. sherrie and her husband wont let me or anybody else in the family see the kids, they say we remind the kids of there mother and the act up if we call.


Asked on 11/17/04, 8:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mary Ann Wunder Wunder & Wunder

Re: if my cousin signed her rights to me could i get her kids

The mother can sign a consent that you have guardianship and that would give you a right to intervene in the guardianship proceeding already in place to request the court reconsider who ought to have custody. Otherwise, the mother can petition that court to secure and enforce her visitation rights in anticipation of termination of the guardianship. There are no guarantees as to whether the court would change the guardian, but it might very well consider that there should be some regular, court enforced, contact with mother (and by such with her family). If this case is in Marion County, it might be in Probate court for a guadianship, in a divorce court where mother and father's marriage was dissolved or it might be a custody order out of the paternity court. In a surrounding county, it will probably be in the court with probate jurisdiction. The reason I say this is that you might have to file a petition to intervene for purposes of custody rather than merely to revise the guardianship.

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Answered on 11/19/04, 10:28 am


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