“Team Guardianship” Offers Hope and Legal Solutions

The call they’ve been dreading finally comes. Hearts pounding, the grandparents race to the home their daughter shares with her husband and baby girl. A police officer is standing in the street, holding the baby in his arms. Inside the apartment, the baby’s mother lies dead, stabbed multiple times, probably while the tiny girl looked on. The murderer is the baby’s father. The grandparents had become increasingly concerned about his controlling, violent behavior. Their daughter always brushed aside their comments. But they were right.

Another grandmother worries endlessly over her four-year old grandchild. Usually he lives with her, but the woman’s daughter, a schizophrenic and drug addict, often travels, leading her little boy on an endless round of chaotic journeys which take her out of the United States. The grandmother doesn’t know how her daughter gets money to support herself and her child.

An eight-year old girl who lives with her grandparents is sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. He has been arrested and is facing criminal prosecution, yet the child’s mother doesn’t seem to believe her daughter’s reports. She isn’t even worried. To the grandparents, it is evident that their daughter would take no steps to protect the little girl from this man. Or any other boyfriend.

These are real stories from Alameda County—changed just enough to protect the clients’ privacy. Not every guardianship is dramatic. But all are sad, involving parents who are not available to their own children, for reasons including incarceration, illness, addiction, or death. This is a nationwide social problem, but Alameda County has an exceptionally high number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Many of them live in constant anxiety that an unstable parent will simply take the child away. If that happens, they know the police can do nothing, because without a court order to the contrary, even the worst parent has legal custody. In cases where the child is in obvious danger, Child Protective Services may step in. This may result in the child being taken from the family and placed in a foster home. Most families do not see this as a good outcome.

Fortunately, the law provides a solution—a legal guardianship, where the court, after an investigation, appoints a responsible person to take over the legal authority of a parent.

At Legal Assistance for Seniors, guardianship is one of the most rewarding areas of our practice. We have a unique role. We are the only legal services agency in Alameda County providing free representation to prospective guardians age 50 and older. Because we handle so many guardianships, our team is well known to, and respected by, the Alameda County courts. When an anxious relative caregiver comes to our office, “Team Guardianship” takes over. In an emergency, we can often obtain an order for a temporary guardianship almost immediately. Advocates Gene Harris and Rachel Lawrence and attorneys Kristen Boney and Mariel Kusano advise and guide the client through the complex and often frustrating legal process and help navigate emotionally charged family situations. 

When the court grants a guardianship for one of our clients, we celebrate. We love to share these stories. We realize that what we have achieved is not so much a “happy ending” as the beginning of a long and often arduous journey for the child, the guardians and other family members, yet we also know that we have gained stability and safety for a young person who would otherwise have faced a very difficult life.