Legal Representation Of Minor Children – Being Parents

The Civil Code provides for the legal representation of unemancipated minor children to parents with parental rights. While children are minors, parents have a series of duties and obligations towards them, in order to protect them, take care of them and ensure their correct physical, intellectual and emotional development.

In order to carry out this task and to make the decisions necessary to protect the good of children, parents must have broad legal powers. All of these faculties are called parental authority.

As we can see, parental rights are the overall power that the law gives parents over their children and property. However, in some cases the law may deprive one or both parents of their parental rights. In the rest of this article, we will see some elements to know all the aspects of the legal representation of minor children.

What is parental authority?

Parental authority is the set of powers that the law grants to parents over their unemancipated minor children. These powers have a double content: personal and patrimonial.

Among the main duties of parents as holders of the parental rights of their children is to watch them, have them by their side, feed them, educate them and give them a full education. Parents must also represent them and manage their property.

When does parental authority and legal representation of minor children end?

Parental rights and legal representation of children cease when children reach the age of majority, that is, when they reach the age of 18. However, there are a few exceptions.

These two situations, fair representation and parental rights, can end sooner if children are legally emancipated. Likewise, parental authority may exceed the age of majority when the children are declared unfit.

What happens in the event of parental divorce?

In the event of separation or divorce of the parents, parental rights and legal representation remain shared, unless a court order orders otherwise. However, in practice, it is usually the parent with whom the children live who assumes custody and exercises effective parental authority and legal representation.

There are situations which obligatorily require the joint exercise of the parental rights of both parents. This is the case, for example, with emancipation, extraordinary expenses not covered by alimony, important decisions in the child’s life, trips abroad, etc.

Are parental authority and legal representation of minor children the same?

Although the general rule is that legal representation of minors is granted to parents with parental rights, there are also some exceptions. In fact, parents who have parental rights for their unemancipated minor children are not legally represented by them in certain specific situations.

They will not be able to represent them, for example, in acts related to personality rights that their children, depending on their degree of maturity, can exercise themselves. In these cases, parents can and should only intervene within the framework of their care and assistance tasks.

Parents who have parental rights will also not be legally represented by their children in acts where there is a conflict of interest between parents and children. They will not have it either in acts related to assets excluded from parental administration.

Following an analysis of the situations that may arise, contracts requiring a child to provide personal services require the agreement of the child, if he has sufficient judgment.

To conclude

When the parents of the unemancipated minor have a conflict of interest with him, an advocate will be appointed to represent him in the event of a trial and outside of it. This measure will also be applied in the case of emancipated minor children, in the event that the legal intervention of the parents is necessary to complete the legal capacity of the minor.

If the conflict exists only with one of the parents, the other parent must represent the child, without it being necessary to name a third person. The aim is always to protect the interests of the most vulnerable party, namely the children.