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Adoption and legal guardians?

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MY MOTHER IN LAW IS DYING AND SHE TOOK CUSTODY "" OF HER DAUGHTERS CHILD ( HER GRANDKID) WHEN HER DAUGHTER PAST AWAY THE CHILD LEGAL FATHER TOOK OFF SO IM ASSUMING SHE IS JUST LEGAL GUARDIAN BECAUSE I DO KNOW THEY NEED A SIGNATURE TO LEGally adopt her but the father is back and we dont want the kid to go with him once she dies is there a way we can adopt her or trade the papers of legal guardiann..... hes been gone for 14 years left whe she was 2 and she oesnt want to leave with him what can we do in los angeles california??

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The child is sixteen? Well then she is old enough to file for emancipation. Thereby making her a legal adult. Then, she has the right to decide where to go.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
You can petition the court to have his parental rights revoked/removed, and you shouldn't have a problem getting this done since he has been out of her life for that long. After this is done, then you can proceed with an adoption or have guardianship transferred to you.
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Go to court and get temporary guardianship until the courts sort it out. For all the judge knows, he may be the victim here. The MIL may have threatened him with arrest and he may have been too young to know his rights. Unless he's a drug addict or a drunk, it is in her best interest for you to encourage some contact with her father.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
Contact an attorney first of all to see what you can do to handle this in the best way for the child.

You can also contact child welfare (go to http://www.childsworld.ca.gov/ to find more info) to see what they might be able to do on the child's behalf.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
by this point the child is probably old enough to tell a judge who she would like to live with...but he could probably be ruled unfit..
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find a lawyer to discuss the law aspect. He may not have any rights since its been so long, and she is about 16. So she has alot of rights also!
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What a crappy situation for the child. Sorry to hear about all that loss...her mom, dad, now grandma......YUK! ANyways she may be old enough to decide what she wants to do for herself. No you cannot ":trade" legal documents. To adopt you would need dad to give up his parental rights to the child. Otherwise it is his child and he has the right to parent no matter what a jerk he was for leaving to begin with...
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He wants to be with her?  That may cause problems.

If the child can get an empathetic judge to rule on your side, there is a chance.  However, courts often rule on the side of parents (no batter how poorly they have parented) when deciding between parents and extended family.

Has he seemed to get his life together?
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