What Are The Differences Between A Guardianship And An Adoption? (Family Code section 3041 and 8500)

The guardianship process in California is extremely complex and will be very difficult to handle without the guidance of a highly skilled guardianship attorney. Whether the court has appointed a guardian for your child or you are seeking a guardianship over a child, a skilled guardianship attorney at Wallin & Klarich will ensure that your guardianship matter is handled with the care necessary to obtain the best possible outcome in your guardianship matter.

Temporary Guardianship in California

A temporary guardianship will be established if the parents are unable or unwilling to care for the child. You will be considered to be unable to care for your child if any of the following apply:

If you are contemplating getting a guardianship or an adoption process started, seek advice from a Wallin & Klarich family law attorney to help you through this process.

1) You have a physical or mental illness that the court believes prevents you from caring for your child;

2) You are suffering from drug or alcohol dependency;

3) You will be going to jail for a long period of time;

4) You have a history of physical, mental, or other abuse;

5) You are in the military and will be overseas for an extended period of time; OR

6) Your child has been out of your care for an extended period of time.
 
A petition for guardianship over your child is a very serious matter. If any of the above factors apply to you, and you are faced with a petition for guardianship in California, do not hesitate to contact an experienced family law attorney at Wallin & Klarich, who will assist you in protecting your rights as a parent.

Our skilled guardianship attorneys are also well versed in assisting clients in obtaining guardianship over a child whose parents fall into any of the above categories. If you are seeking to obtain guardianship over a child, a Wallin & Klarich family law attorney can evaluate the details of your case and guide you through this difficult process.

Differences Between a Guardianship and an Adoption

While a guardianship and adoption may seem very similar, there are several key differences:

1) When a guardianship is established, the rights of the parents are not completely taken away. Depending on the court’s orders, the parents may still have contact and visitation rights with their child while the guardianship is in place. With adoption, the adoptive parents obtain parental rights over the child as if it was their birth child, and the birth parents will not have visitation rights.

 

2) With a guardianship, the court may end the guardianship if the parents become willing and/or able to care for their child. In the case of adoption, the adoptive parents are substituted for the birth parents and the birth parents lose their parental rights.

 

3) The guardian of the child will be supervised by the court. However, in the case of adoption, the adoptive parents will not be supervised by the court, once the adoption is finalized.

Guardianship Attorney

Guardianship matters in California are extremely complex and you should not attempt to handle the matter alone when faced with a guardianship issue. The highly skilled family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich have over 30 years of experience successfully helping clients achieve favorable results. Our guardianship attorneys possess the knowledge of the law and pay close attention to the details of your case to obtain the best outcome in your guardianship case.

Wallin & Klarich has offices located in Orange County, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Torrance, Riverside, West Covina, Victorville, Ventura, San Diego and Sherman Oaks. If you or someone you love is going through the difficult guardianship process, call us at (888) 749-7428. We will be there when you call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.