Emancipation with Parental Consent

**tremere** · 05-24-2009, 12:52 AM

Hello I'm 17 and live in VA , I have a job where I get 30+ hours a week and make 500+ a month and I'm about to get a raise. I live at my grandmothers house and she is currently in detox , my mother lives 2 and a half hours away from me and my dad lives with my grandmother living off her money and using her car. He has no job and has no intention of getting one and has been in jail and mental institutions in and out for years now and is an extreme case of bi-polar, hence the reason I can't live with him. My mother has full custody of me and my dad has NO parental rights to me , legally he isn't responsible for me. I need to get emancipated and live on my own , I graduated high school two years ago and have a diploma. I could get more hours at my job if needed as well. I have been taking care of myself for years and could get an apartment easy , I don't have a car or a license but I will be able to get it in a few weeks. Either way the town I live in is small enough to walk anywhere literally. I've already called the appartments and they are income based and said I would need to be emancipated before they could accept money from me.

My mom will sign for me to get emancipated but I need to know what my chances are of getting out. My dad isn't legally my parent and I need for all of this to happen without his knowledge until I just leave.

I can't live with her because she is on dissability and has a one bedroom apartment and my sister lives with her. She can't support me basically , my dad is literally insane and if he thought I was up to something like this it would be very bad.

Can anyone help me?

Also I would like to add another question , since my dad is legally , not my dad , would that count as me living seperate from my parent ( mother ) with her consent? I have been here for a year and legally he IS NOT my dad , he gave up ALL his parental rights to me when I was 12. Thank you.

**divemedic** · 05-24-2009, 03:58 AM

As bad as your situation is, you are still not supporting yourself. Emancipation is about what you ARE doing, not what you WANT to do, or think you can do.

1 You are living with your grandmother, not on your own. That is not supporting yourself.

2 Income restricted housing is government subsidised (Section 8, usually) housing. I am not sure how the court views that.

3 $500 a month is not enough to support yourself on. That includes rent, utilities, healthcare, and food. I know that when you are 17, $500 seems like a lot of money, but that is nothing. You are making less than $10,000 a year. Making a living is far more expensive that you think.

4 While you are waiting for 18, why not see if you can get into a community college?

**LawResearcherMissy** · 05-24-2009, 04:43 AM

You can read the VA emancipation statute here.

As noted, you're really not making all that much money, and it's unlikely the courts will look kindly upon you living in subsidized housing. Additionally, you appear to need to already be living apart from your parents or guardians and already be paying your own way to be considered.

Your father's lack of legal custody has no bearing.

**tremere** · 05-24-2009, 12:33 PM

I know 500$ isn't alot like I said I could easily make more and will be getting a raise soon.

Neither one of them are my guardians and my mother lives off 700 a month and supports herself and a child and her rent is 500 a month..

**LawResearcherMissy** · 05-24-2009, 12:45 PM

What your mother does is irrelevant. It has no bearing on whether or not your petition would be granted.

Similarly, "I'm going to get a raise" also has no bearing.

The court wants to know how you're completely supporting yourself right now, and they want to know how long you've been doing so. You haven't been, and you aren't, so your chances are...pretty well nonexistent.