Terms Used In Maryland Code, FAMILY LAW 5-313

  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: includes an individual, receiver, trustee, guardian, personal representative, fiduciary, representative of any kind, corporation, partnership, business trust, statutory trust, limited liability company, firm, association, or other nongovernmental entity. See
  • state: means :

    (1) a state, possession, territory, or commonwealth of the United States; or

    (2) the District of Columbia. See
(a) Except as provided in § 5-331 of this subtitle, a petition for guardianship shall precede a petition for adoption under this subtitle.

(b) Only the individual who would be subject to guardianship or a local department may file a petition for guardianship under this Part II of this subtitle.

(c) A petition for guardianship of an individual shall be filed before the individual attains 18 years of age.

(d) A petitioner under this section shall attach to a petition:

(1) all written consents for the guardianship that the petitioner has;

(2) if applicable:

(i) proof of guardianship or relinquishment of parental rights granted by an administrative, executive, or judicial body of a state or other jurisdiction; and

(ii) certification that the guardianship or relinquishment was granted in compliance with the jurisdiction’s laws; and

(3) a notice of filing that:

(i) states the date on which the petition was filed;

(ii) identifies each person whose consent was filed with the petition;

(iii) states the obligation of a parent to give the juvenile court and local department notice of each change in the parent’s address;

(iv) has printed on it the website that the Department maintains under § 2-302 of the Human Services Article; and

(v) includes no identifying information that would be in violation of an agreement or consent.