An Attorney Who Has Walked In Your Shoes

Representing parents, relatives in guardianship cases

As previous posts have discussed, there are many situations in which a Springfield, Massachusetts, resident may need to step in and be able to take care of a young relative or other child in their lives. These people will need to have legal authority in order to do what they need to do to take care of the child, and a guardianship is a way to get that authority. In some situations, the friend or relative seeking guardianship is doing so in part to prevent the child from going through the public welfare system.

In other cases, a biological parent may be doing the best he or she can, only to discover that someone else who is not the child’s parent has filed a request to have custody over their child, thereby sharply restricting the parent’s rights. Sometimes, while the parent may have at one point needed help raising their child, they have since gotten their lives back together and would like to resume full parental responsibilities.

All of these sorts of situations are very emotional and hard to deal with, even absent the legal complications associated with them. The attorney at our law office understands these issues. She is well aware of the sorts of things judges are looking for when deciding whether to grant guardianship to a third party or, alternatively, end a guardianship so that a child can return to live with his or her parent.

When there is no conflict of interest, we are able to represent both parents who are trying to keep or restore custody of their children and “Good Samaritans” who are trying to get the legal power they need to provide and care for a child who really could use their help. We are also available to answer questions from parents and prospective guardians.