Q: My brother has been living with me for 9 months but my mom still has custody. How can I gain legal custody of him?
My mom overdosed last year and we agreed he would live with me indefinitely. She still has full legal custody which is posing issues with his school, his doctors, his counselors, and everything else in his life. He has a lot of mental health issues so its important that his needs be met but it's hard to do when I have to wait for her to do everything because my signature means nothing. She is still doing drugs and has made no attempts to get her life back in order to get him back but refuses to sign custody over. How can I get legal custody of him?
A:
File a petition for child custody of him. Under some recent law changes, you now have standing "in loco parentis" to make such a filing with the court.
Best of luck to you.
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