Can I Get Emancipated

[poison00]

My question involves emancipation laws for the State of: Missouri.
I am a 16 year old with a job and I am a straight A student. My mother has kicked me out of her house and I have not spoken to my father since I was a small child. My mother is a mentally unstable alcoholic and has driven my brothers and I out of our home. Child Services has been called on my mother several times because she does not take care of us. She is a danger to us kids and herself. I am currently living with my aunt and uncle and can continue to live with them if I get emancipated. She refuses to give me my belongings and I don't want her to be able to tell the cops that my aunt and uncle kidnapped me because I have not filed abandoment charges. My mother has stole my money out of my bank account so I would have to rely on her. I had to open a new one. I need to be emancipated so I can take care of myself with out having to rely on my mother (medical, car, etc).

[cyjeff]

Did you read the sticky at the top of the forum or did you believe it didn't apply to you?

[aardvarc]

First, your mother cannot kick you out if she is your legal guardian. The moment she closed the door behind you, she committed the crime of child abandonment and police should have been called. Police would have said: "you have two choices, you either allow the child in, or you go to jail". Pick up the phone and report this crime and let police contact CPS (who will likely be very approving that you have other family who has already taken you in), otherwise you are at the whim of mom accusing your aunt and uncle of harboring you as a runaway and THEY could face criminal charges.

Living with family will NOT meet the requirements for emancipation. If you are going to live with other family members, they need to start the process to seek guardianship of you. They can contact their local county courthouse or visit the website for your county court's probate section to get the instructions and paperwork they would need to seek custody of you.

[poison00]

I just signed up to post questions on this site I was unaware what the sticky was. Perhaps you should try to not be so rude next time.

[poison00]

Thank you for your advice but my mother has problems I would rather not send her to jail. Is there another way to get around this.

[aardvarc]

Sure there is. You can just continue to live with aunt and uncle. However, since neither of them is your LEGAL guardian, realize that:

a) mom can demand that you come home at any time, and even with past investigations, will have law enforcement on her side if she wants to be nasty and FORCE you home and/or pursue criminal charges against those who harbor you against her wishes (and if THEY go to jail, that's going to shoot down chances of them becoming your legal guardians later). In other words, just because mom has drinking or other issues doesn't give aunt/uncle ANY level of legal authority to take you in if mom wishes otherwise. ONLY a court can make that happen.

b) that just because they are ACTING like your guardians, they have no legal authority to do things like register you for school, authorize medical care or treatment for you, put you on their insurance, or any of the many other things that legal guardians can do.

You can skip the police step and just have them apply for guardianship - but that doesn't completely negate the POSSIBILITY that mom will eventually have to answer for the CRIMINAl act of child abandonment. It will depend on how willing she is to "play ball". If everyone involved agrees that she gave you permission to live with aunt/uncle (as opposed to "threw you out"), it'll likely be a non-issue. If it comes to light that you were "put out", it could mean problems for her.