In 2014 the Oklahoma legislature passed two new laws related to guardianship by power of attorney. The new laws allow for the custodial parent of a child to transfer guardianship by power of attorney. This temporary transfer of custody gives the delegated individual full custodial authority. For a free explanation of the law call our Tulsa temporary guardianship attorney today.
Full custodial authority means giving this third party the right to act as a parent. This comes with all the rights of any other parent. This new Oklahoma family law provides very few limitations. The limitations include full adoption of the child, the child’s marriage, procuring an abortion or the termination of the parental rights of the child. The delegated 3rd party doesn’t have power to modify further custody of child support orders. One requirement states that the 3rd party must not to receive compensation for taking the guardianship. Another requirement is that the guardianship last only 1 year. However, there no limit exists to how many times the delegation through the power of attorney can renew.
Some Advantages of Temporary Guardianship:
The important part is that to transfer custody by power of attorney to a 3rd party, the parent is not subject to any action for abandoning the child, except if they fail to renew the power of attorney.
The advantages of these new laws is that it allows for parents who are unable to care for their children to delegate the responsibilities to someone with little trouble. The process intends to lessen the cost and time it takes in normal cases. However, this also has its disadvantages. One disadvantage is that if the case is done through the system certain benefits are available.
More information about Guardianship by Power of Attorney can be found here.
These new laws do however have the ability to create new problems. They don’t prevent the parties in a divorce from transferring custody to someone that isn’t one of the parents. This is in contrast to previous established law regarding the preferential placement of custody. It also omits the consideration of whether or not the parent giving up custody must pay child support.
As these laws received the governor’s signature in an emergency clause, they went into effect immediately. The unintended consequences of these laws are not yet known. They do raise several legal questions and situations that need addressing in court. One such issue is terminating the guardianship. As with all powers of attorney the guardianship if transferred by power of attorney can be terminated at any time. This means that if you are seeking emergency guardianship of a child so by power of attorney may not be for you. This is because the the parent who transfers custody to you may be able to terminate the guardianship before the immediate risk of harm resolves.
Find a Tulsa Temporary Guardianship Attorney:
If you have any questions regarding Tulsa temporary guardianship either by emergency or through a power of attorneys call us today. Our family law attorneys help with all divorce , Guardianship and child custody issues.