Maybe you’ve heard of emancipating a minor. It’s not easy, and that’s part of why it seldom happens. If it does, you can feel sure there’s some extraordinary circumstances at play. 

Emancipating a minor often requires a lengthy court battle which can get ugly in a hurry. In this article, we’ll talk about this concept in detail, as well as some situations that make it possible.

What Does This Term Mean?

Emancipation of a minor means that someone under the age of 18 frees themselves from the legal control of their parents or guardians. In other words, they petition the court, and the court then makes the decision as to whether to grant the minor this relatively unusual status.

The US, for the sake of this concept, considers someone a minor if they’re under 18 years of age. However, it’s obviously unlikely that the court will grant an 11-year-old emancipated status. 

Usually, if a minor petitions a court and tries to get a judge to emancipate them from their parents, then they’re relatively close to 18. If a 16-year-old petitions the court for emancipation and meets certain qualifications, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it might happen.  

Why Might a Minor Want to Emancipate Themselves?

Just about every child wants to run away from home at some point. Maybe they’ll want to do it because their mom made them go to bed when they wanted to stay up to watch cartoons for another hour. In the modern era, maybe their mom took away their smartphone and told them no more screen time for the day.

However, there’s also situations where a child wants to run away from home or to get away from their biological parents for a much more insidious reason. For instance, you might have a scenario where the parents in the house both abuse drugs. Maybe they don’t work regular jobs, and instead, they spend every cent that they can get on heroin, alcohol, methamphetamine, or some other substance of choice. 

If that is happening, then the child will probably want to get out of that situation, and they might do just about anything to make that happen. If they don’t want to run away and live on the street, though, then looking into emancipation can make more sense.

What Other Reasons Might a Minor Have to Want Emancipation?

A minor might also want to emancipate themselves if one of their parents frequently tries to sexually molest them. They may want to get away if the parent often engages in some type of fraud.

Essentially, any time there’s criminality around the child, and they have the impetus to try to get away from it, that’s a prime reason for emancipation. However, it’s not often easy for the minor to convince a judge to let them do it. 

Does This Child Have the Resources to Face the World on Their Own?

For a judge to even give serious consideration to emancipating a child, they will need to look at what the child’s proposing. The judge must think about where this minor will live. They must also look at how they will pay for necessities, like rent and food. 

They will want to look at whether this child can attend school if they’re on their own. In short, they will need to take a hard look at every way in which this minor proposes to conduct their actions and care for themselves.

As you might expect, for this to happen, the judge must check off a lot of boxes. If anything about what this minor’s proposing doesn’t make sense in the judge’s mind, then they will likely look into other options for this child, even if it’s clear that sending them back to live with their biological parents should not take place. 

Do They Have Any Other Relatives Who Might Take Them In?

The judge will almost always look into whether this child has any other relatives with whom they might live. If the judge feels that it is obvious that they should not send this minor back into a situation where they’re surrounded by crime or addiction, then they might look into the existence of any aunts, uncles, older cousins, or even family friends who might watch over this child until they reach the age of 18.

If the judge can find someone with whom they can place the child, they will almost always prefer to do that. It is not typically ideal to put a teenager on their own, even if the judge feels this teen shows an extraordinary measure of intelligence and an ability to care for themselves. 

They Must Usually Accept Some Degree of Court Supervision

Even if the judge does feel that they should take this child away from their biological parents, and they don’t have any other relatives or immediate family with whom they can place them, they will probably order close court supervision until such time as this child turns 18. The child will need to submit to regular visits from a court-appointed individual who essentially acts as a social worker.

If the minor demonstrates that they can live on their own, then they might remain in this situation till they turn 18. At that point, they’re legally an adult, and the court no longer needs to monitor them this way.

Because of all the implications involved, this kind of thing does not happen all that often. Even if the judge agrees that this child should not be anywhere near their biological parents, they will probably try to insert the minor into the family of a blood relation, unless none exists or the relatives have equally serious problems. 

A child’s emancipation can sometimes save their life or make it considerably better. Some people make exceptionally poor parents. Getting an intelligent, capable teen away from them to live on their own might represent the best solution for all of the parties involved.