‘I am an adult. I am married, and I have two children. My sister is 13 and living with my mother. My mother spends most of her time with her younger friends at bars or just “hanging out” and drinking. I want to know if I can legally gain custody of my sister in the state of Georgia.’

There are a couple of routes you can go here – one would be trying becoming appointed as your sister’s legal guardian. The other would be for your sister to seek emancipation, as, if granted, she can live wherever she chooses.

Unfortunately, for either to happen, it is most likely that social services would need to get involved. Your first stop should be calling a local family law clinic and asking them what they advise.

Also, although you don’t mention your sister’s father, any action to remove your sister from your mother’s custody would require that he be notified, if his whereabouts are known, as he would be first in line for custody of your sister if she were to be removed from your mother’s custody.

Sometimes informal arrangements end up being the most practical; if possible, you may want to consider finding a way to make it palatable for your mother to agree for your sister to live with you. The advantage of this is that once your sister has been living with you for some time, a court is much more likely to agree to keeping that arrangement in place.


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State laws vary, and the above is intended as general advice, and not direct legal advice regarding any one particular situation in any one state. For direct personal legal advice related to your own situation you should consult an attorney familiar with the laws of your state and with your situation.