Getting Guardianship of a Grandchild

**zedex** · 03-27-2009, 10:46 PM

Obtaining legal custody in Ga

Today, I was talking with a friend. She has her grandson and has since the father died in Dec 05. Her daughter, the boy's mother, has a drug problem and is mentally handicapped.

The daughter has a total of three kids, the oldest lives with the grandmother, the other two live with the grandfather. They have been divorced for 20 years.

The mother of the kids, is not capable of raising kids and has been missing for a few years. The boy is old enough for school but cannot register because the grandmother does not have legal custody. {Neither does the grandfather}.

The grandmother has contacted attornies in her area to get papers files for custody, but the attornies want way too much money-- money she cannot afford to pay out.

She was wondering how she can about getting custody of the boy legally. She knows that she will have to run a public announcement in the local paper, but what is she to do after that? It would be much easier to have the daughter there so the daughter can tell a judge she is willing to sign over custody, but this does not seem to be the case.

The grandmother has contacted legal aid, but they deal with criminal issues only.

What should she do? Can she proceed with this without an attorney? Certainly there has to be something she can do, but what??

**Mr. Knowitall** · 03-28-2009, 06:25 AM

From what you say, she needs to petition for guardianship. There may be information on her county court website; there may also be forms and instructions online, or she can get them at the probate court (e.g., Peach County instructions and forms; here's a standard form). If she can't afford the filing fee, she can ask if they have an "affidavit of indigency" she can submit to try to get the fee waived.