Who Must be Involved?

Each living parent or legal guardian, who still has legal responsibility of the minor, will be told of the legal action by the court (served notice). Each parent or legal guardian has the right to sign a waiver, a form that states that she or he is not interested in stopping the minor from becoming a legal adult and will agree to the judge's decision of whether or not the minor should be emancipated.

However, each parent has a right to appear at the hearing and bring a lawyer for representation. If the minor knows that her parent will fight the emancipation, she may want to have a lawyer. There are resources listed at the end of this booklet.

The judge will appoint someone called a “guardian-ad-litem” to interview the minor applicant. The guardian-ad-litem will make a recommendation to the judge of whether the emancipation order should be granted. The guardian-ad-litem is usually a lawyer or a social worker who does not represent the minor but represents what is in the best interests of the minor to the judge. If this person does not agree that the teen should be emancipated, the guardian-ad-litem will tell the judge so.

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