Oregon Legal Research Blog
How did we answer that? Guardianship of a Minor
I had a patron come in looking for information about becoming the legal guardian of their grandchildren. The parents were no longer available and the grandmother was looking to get legal guardianship of the children, to be able to make legal and medical decisions, and to enroll them into the local school.
In Oregon, the Oregon Judicial Department puts out some forms. The OJD forms are accepted at any circuit (county) court. Additional forms may be available depending on the county/local court. For Guardianship, the state has extremely limited form options. Every county has the option of providing additional forms, guidance, or instructions. As we are in Washington County, our circuit court’s guardianship (called probate guardianship) options are pretty much the same as the state.
However, conveniently, our circuit court had pointed out to our patron that the Multnomah County circuit court has a packet for guardianship that is more informative. So, we got our patron on one of our computers and pulled up Multnomah County’s offering. In this case, the forms associated with Multnomah County may or may not be accepted in Washington County. However, the instructions on HOW to file for guardianship can be useful in any county. It is important to note that when searching for guardianship, sometimes you have to look in the probate section, as is the case with Multnomah Court’s site where guardianship is housed under the probate menu.
We have many additional resources we can offer patrons including a couple of kinship help guides. Oregon Kinship Navigator provides multiple resources including a Legal Guide and a Resource Guide. These guides are our primary resources to show people looking for information about 3rd party rights (grandparents, step-parents, etc).
For this patron, she didn’t have a lot of time, so we stopped there. She wasn’t that computer savvy but asked if I could write down the websites so that her grandchildren could help her at home, which I did. I also provided her with information on finding a lawyer because she wasn’t sure if she needed one.