Art. 1514 Petition for voluntary transfer

If someone wants to voluntarily transfer custody of a child, they have to start the process with a written petition filed in court. This isn't something that can happen informally or through a verbal agreement.

Everyone who currently has legal custody of the child normally needs to join in filing this petition together. If one of the custodians can't or won't sign on, the petition has to explain clearly why that person isn't joining in.

There's an important exception here. If a guardian has already been appointed for the child, this voluntary transfer process can't be used at all. Instead, anyone wanting to change the guardianship arrangement has to file a different type of request, called a motion to modify guardianship, following the separate rules laid out in Article 724.