Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Custody of brother, how easy?
Last year my fiance's dad died. His 15 year old brother was living with their dad at the time, as their mom had kicked him out of her house. My fiance got partial-legal custody of his brother, so he can sign school forms, as his brother has been living with us since their dad died. My fiance and I got married after he got the partial legal custody, and we are not receiving any child support from thier mother (neither was their father).
How easy is it to gain custody? Their mother has made it clear the she will not take her son back into her home, but has yet to offer us full custody of him. She still has sole physical custody even though he hasn't lived with her for going on 3 years now. She's still claiming him on taxes as well.
This is getting really annoying as I can't pick him up from school to take him to appointments, because my name is not on the form they received back at the beginning of all of this.
Is this something we can get a form for and have all of us sign it? I hate to think that this is like signing over a car title, but if she doesn't want him back I don't see the need to take her to court over this. He's 16 now so he can choose to not go live with her anyway, correct? Any cheap and time efficient solutions?

Asked on 6/15/04, 4:54 pm

J. Chris Carpenter Harvey and Carpenter

0 users found helpful

0 attorneys agreed

Re: Custody of brother, how easy?

Without the mother's consent, you will need to go to court. I have handled similar cases.

Answered on 6/15/04, 5:05 pm

Keywords

Match Any Match All

Country

State

Area of Law