Rule 4 Guardians appointed without citation

This rule covers a special situation in guardianship cases involving minors. Normally, the court has to send out an official notice called a "citation" to let people know a guardianship case is happening. But if a parent has full legal and physical custody of their child, and that same parent is asking to be named the child's guardian, the court can skip sending out this citation.

Even without the citation, the court still has to hold a hearing before appointing the parent as guardian. If anything comes up during the process showing that the child does not agree with the guardianship, the court cannot just move forward quietly. Instead, the case must be scheduled for a full hearing, and proper notice must go out to everyone involved.

This rule only applies in a narrow situation: when the parent asking to be guardian already has both sole legal custody and sole physical custody of the child, and that same parent is the only person asking to serve as guardian. If those exact conditions are not met, the court cannot use this shortcut and must follow the regular notice process.