Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: leaving home

Emancipation of minors is covered by Virginia law:

� 16.1-331. Petition for emancipation.

Any minor who has reached his sixteenth birthday and is residing in this Commonwealth, or any parent or guardian of such minor, may petition the juvenile and domestic relations district court for the county or city in which either the minor or his parents or guardian resides for a determination that the minor named in the petition be emancipated. The petition shall contain, in addition to the information required by � 16.1-262, the gender of the minor and, if the petitioner is not the minor, the name of the petitioner and the relationship of the petitioner to the minor."

As to how you do it. You have to convince a judge that you are responsible enough to live on your own. Have a job or have a secure place of residence and financial security to provide for your needs. You don't necessarily have to prove that your parents are doing a bad job. You just have to prove that you're over the age of sixteen and you can be self sufficient.

Any mention of living with a lover will sink you. You can live with other people but its generally a good idea for them to be much older adults.

Your parents may, of course, hire a lawyer, and put up a defense to try to defeat your attempt to emancipate yourself.

I would say you need a great plan and the services of a very good attorney.

Good luck.

Re: leaving home

The legal question which you mean to present, apparently, is whether now, at age 16, you should undertake actions to emancipate yourself legally from your parents.

Emancipation for minors is generally a bad idea,

absent very persuasive reasons, none of which you have referenced in your inquiry.

There is one clue, however, in your question from which one might reasonably conclude that in your particular situation it really is a terrible idea, i.e., your allusion to "the person

i(sic) would liek(sic)to move in with is 20".

Assuming that you are a young female and that this person is a young man that you're proposing to move in with, this combination is very likely to be truly a prescription for disaster.

Avoid this at all costs; nothing will come of it for you but trouble. Seek counseling, if necessary, from your school or other community resources.