Free clinic to provide info on guardianship of minors

Session set for Friday morning

How is adopting a child different from being the child’s guardian? The answer to that question and many others can be found at an upcoming Legal Guardianship Clinic, which is free and open to the public.

The Yuma County Law Library is offering the upcoming clinic as part of an ongoing series of free public sessions to assist court patrons with all types of cases. The effort is in support of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Strategic Agenda to increase access to the courts.

The clinic will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday at the Yuma Justice Center, 250 W. 2nd St., and is being put on in collaboration with Yuma County Superior Court, the Yuma County Bar Association, Regional Center for Border Health Inc., and Hunt, Walsma and Gale Attorneys at Law.

Unlike previous clinics that also provided information about establishing guardianship of incapacitated adults, Friday’s clinic will focus solely on minor guardianship and coincides with the start of the school year.

Partners in other clinics in the series include the Law Offices of Alicia Aguirre, Community Legal Services, Sonia Ramirez, Attorney at Law, and the State Bar of Arizona.

Guardianship is most often associated with minors who are being cared for on a temporary basis. A guardian takes on a role similar to that of a parent and uses the child’s money for the child’s health, education and welfare. A guardian, however, does not becomes the child’s legal parent.

A variety of topics will be discussed at the clinic, including a guardian’s responsibility, who can become a guardian, the court’s role in the process and what rights a guardian has.

Other topics to be discussed will focus on what the costs are, how long it can take, who can be a guardian and who can be appointed. General questions will be answered following the clinic, but no specific legal advice will be given.

There is currently a large number of litigants with cases in Yuma County Superior Court who are representing themselves in all types of cases, including instances of establishing guardianship. Court officials say that number is likely to increase in the future due to the rising cost of hiring an attorney.

These informational forums provide a valuable service to the court system, according to officials, because self-represented litigants often have difficulty preparing and filing documents and meeting procedural requirements, which causes delays in their cases.

As such, those in attendance will also be given an overview on filling out the various documents associated with guardianship, what they will need to submit to the court, and what costs are associated.

The clinic will be given in English and Spanish. Registration is not required, and anyone interested in attending can call the Law Library at (928) 817-4165 for more information.