I am in the military and married. My wife want to have her little brother come live with us, Hes 4 yrs old. Would we have to have legal custody of him to keep him? He will be going to school here, and also I would want to add him as a dependant, and put him on my health care, which is provided by the military… So basically would I have to have legal documents stating that he is in our care? or is there a way that i could do all this without legal custody?

You don’t need legal custody to "keep" him. All you need is his parent’s permission and written consent to make medical decisions on the child’s behalf, should a non-life threatening emergency arise.

However, probably to enroll him in school, and almost certainly to obtain insurance, you will need custody. If his parent’s agree, though, you can obtain a temporary guardianship order by filing a motion in family court and attending a hearing. You don’t need an attorney, just a filing fee. Pick up the paperwork at the county family courthouse where the child resides. Good luck.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 11:32 am and is filed under Child Custody Legal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.