Is a signed paper for guardianship of a child hold any weight in court? I have guardianship of a child for one year while the mother gets her act together. We drew up a form and had it notarized and signed by the mother and by my husband and I.

Thank you

Not really... The only paper that has any real weight is a court ordered guardianship... anything else is just that, a piece of paper... you can't hand over kids anywhere near that easy... they aren't pets or cars... and thus the court is not going to pay much if any attention to such agreements. And if the mother wants the kid back... you don't want to be the one that gets in the way.

It would stop you from going to chair for kidnapping, but it is not a legal guardianship.
To have a legal guaridianship it has to be though the court. You can not just all sign a paper,
Surprised a notary would even witness it.

But a notary is just a legal witness , a notary does not make it any more or less legal.

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Is a signed paper for guardianship of a child hold any weight in court?

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It depends on what the court case is about. I'm going to disagree with my colleagues here because of your specific question above. Depending on the court case if you present a signed agreement to the court it will have weight with the court. It will show the court the intent of the mother among other things.

But outside a court, it has no legal weight. For example, if you had to get medical care for the child, it should not allow you to authorize such care. This is why my colleagues answered the way they did.

But my feeling is that a court will give weight to this agreement. Just how much weight and how they will rule will depend on the case.

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

... Surprised a notary would even witness it.
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A notary is not expected to even read it. So why not?