The guardianship application process
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
My nephew is 17. Both of his parents are dead and myself, my younger sister and my mother are parenting him.
However, we are unable to process any official documents such as ID, passport, etc because it requires one of us to become his legal guardian. How do we complete this process?
Your nephew’s situation is urgent as you say he is 17 years of age. You, your sister and your mother must retain the services of an attorney-at-law to make an urgent application for custody, care and control and guardianship — immediately as you must obtain these orders before he is 18. All of you, or one of you, can be the applicants or applicant. If you all decide that you would be the sole applicant, your sister and mother can file a joint affidavit deponing to the facts of their assistance and full support in the care and upbringing and responsibility of your nephew.
The application must be made in the Supreme Court pursuant to the Children (Guardianship and Custody) Act. You will need to take to the lawyer a certified copy of your nephew’s birth certificate, and certified copies of his parents’ death certificates (if you do not have one or both of them then take the pink burial slip form) and be ready with all the facts relevant to his current circumstances and life (how the parents died; when he came to reside with you all; how you all provide for him and his schooling/education particulars and his future plans; his health, if there are any problems in this regard; the physical space you have for him in your home and his religious practice and education; his hobbies and any other relevant fact). It must clearly be stated in your affidavit that you have been and are willing and able to have the responsibility of having custody of him and of his care and to guide and guard in every way to the very best of your ability and with the willing support of your mother and sister.
In the above I have acted as if you are the sole applicant. All these, however, still apply, if you three all wish to apply and be his joint custodians, having his care and control, and be his guardians. Once the order is made, you must ensure that your lawyer has applied for and obtained, also as a matter of urgency, sufficient copies of the order of the court, which you can then use to apply to obtain whatever official documents he needs and to make all decisions necessary for his upbringing and welfare.
Your lawyer, in addition to preparing and filing your application and the necessary affidavits in support of either a sole application or a joint one, should also prepare and file an Affidavit of Urgency, to ensure that the application is heard as quickly after being filed as is possible. The lawyer must pursue the urgency of the matter, with the relevant Registrar of the Supreme Court Registry, so the affidavit of urgency is not overlooked and it goes through the Registry for the date of hearing to be fixed. Please make sure that you stress this to the lawyer.
Please retain a lawyer immediately as time is of the essence if you wish to have the legal authority to be able to obtain the necessary documents for him before he attains his majority, when he would have to obtain them for himself.
All the very best.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
DISCLAIMER:
The contents of this article are for informational purposes only, and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.
