I want to know if I can present myself in a guardianship pettion hearing
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I want to know if I can present myself in a guardianship pettion hearing
My mother paramour who has never had a legal right to make any decision on my mother’s behalf because they were never leaglly married and FLorida does not recognize common law marriage. He has pettion the court for emergency guardianship and incompentcy judgement.He now holds in his passion tempory order giving legal say and healthcare proxy rights to him and he has accused the nursing home shes in as abusive. Nothing could be father from the truth and he is just using the system to get his way and keep her children out of the picture. I’ve have always been recognized as her healthcare proxy because I am her closet blood family member so all hospital in house records can support that much, but I never had anything officially drawn up or recorded to give us POA or HCproxy. Mostly, because I’m her daughter, they are not married and he is unfit to care for her. None of her children has been notifed of this pettion and an upcoming hearing. I don’t think he mentioned she has real family members or that they’re me be something else in place suggesting who has the real right. I do not believe his legal consul has done her do diligence to look into this person’s credibility nor if there would be cause to reject his request. I can not afford an attourny, so I wanted to know how I can get my concerns and back story heard at/or before the initial hearing schedules in May. I have reason to believe that the court has been misinformed and my mother will end up in the wrong hands.
Asked on March 16, 2017 under Estate Planning, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
No, you cannot represent yourself directly if you are not a party to his legal action (i.e. if you were not named as a defendant). Only a party to a legal action can represent him- or herself. If you not defending yourself but are instead, for example, trying to intervene and protect your mother, you will need to hire an attorney for this purpose.
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