The Ritchie Law Firm practices in the area of law concerning Adoption and Guardianship. In Adoption Law and Guardianship Law a legal relationship is formed in which one person has the duty, obligation and legal capacity to care for another.
Adoption Law deals with creation of the legal relationship of parent and child between two individuals who are not by natural birth parent and child. The creation of this relationship arises by court order in an adoption proceeding. The adopting parent becomes the legal parent of the other. As a result of the formation of this legal relationship the adopting parent takes on all the legal duties, rights, and obligations of a natural parent towards the adopted child. Likewise, the adoptive child assumes the position as a natural child and receives all legal status as such including inheritance rights from the adoptive parent.
In some situations the adoptive child is available for adoption as having already been through proceedings in which the parental rights of the natural parents have been terminated by the state and is in the custody of the state. In some situations the natural parent or parents have consented to the adoption of the child by another. In other situations the adoption is made without consent of the natural parent or parents in a proceeding which involves the termination of parental rights on legal grounds that the parent has abandoned the child or other such grounds as may exist to terminate the parent's rights.
Guardianship Law deals with the creation of a legal relationship in which one person has the legal right and authority and responsibility to render care to another. Guardianship relationships, outside of the natural relationship of parent and child, are created by court order. The Guardianship may be "general" which is broad and sweeping or "limited" which is narrow in scope.
A person may be a Guardian Of The Person in which case the care, custody and control of the person is involved. A person may be a Guardian Of The Property in which case the Guardian is charged with the management of the person's estate. A person may be a Guardian of the person and the property in which the care and responsibility of the Guardian is encompassing basically everything having to do with the person.
The circumstances in which Guardianship may be proper are varied. Some circumstances in which a person may need a Guardian are; Inability to care for one's self because of an illness, Inability to care for self due to age, Inability to make sound decisions due to mental incapacity or illness, Loss of parents of a child due to death of the parents, Loss of parents of a child by reason of abandonment of the child by the parents, and other such instances where a person is in need of help from another in order to be cared for.