Adult Guardianship

By: Anthony Cooper

You may need to petition the court for guardianship over a loved one who is unable to care for themselves or if their incapacity endangers their health and safety. Guardianship is a legal process for persons who are unable to manage their own affairs due to their incapacity. The individual’s incapacity may be due to physical or mental issues. Guardianship gives a guardian control over an individual’s day-to-day decision-making ability such as overseeing an individual’s medical, legal, personal, and/or financial decisions. Through the guardianship process, some or all of an individual’s rights may be removed. In our experience, most adult guardianship cases are due to the lack of an individual’s ability to manage their finances and/or unable to take appropriate actions for their health and safety because they may be mentally incapacitated. In such cases, they are unlikely to recover and, as such, guardianship generally ends when the individual dies.

In North Dakota, you will need to petition the court for guardianship over your loved one and, based on the evidence presented at a hearing, the court may appoint a guardian if they decide your loved one is incapacitated. The court will also decide on the degree of the decision-making authority the appointed guardian has as it relates to the incapacitated individual’s medical, legal, residential, educational, vocational, and financial rights.

Most importantly, the appointment of a guardian severely limits or completely removes the rights of individuals to make their own personal decisions. Therefore, the court will inquire if less restrictive options were considered.

Petitioning the Court for guardianship can be overwhelming. At the Boppre Law Firm, our goal is to make the process seamless. We understand that guardianship matters can greatly affect families and we are here to help. You can trust us at the Boppre Law Firm to help you navigate the legal process. We have knowledgeable, experienced counsel that will guide you every step of the way. Check us out online or call us today.