Definition of Voluntary Jurisdiction

When someone requests or requests for their own initiative yet judge that he adopt a decision on a matter, it is a voluntary jurisdiction. Consequently, this legal concept has two general characteristics:

1) is not applicable to a contentious-type procedure, since its purpose is informative and

2) Whoever requests it does so freely and, therefore, voluntarily.

Types that processes that can be identified

In the process of voluntary jurisdiction there is no type of legal dispute, so there is no figure of the defendant. What criterion In general, the main situations in which voluntary jurisdiction is applicable are the following:

1) requests to the judge in order to alienate or encumber property of persons whose representation legal depends on others, such as parents or guardian,

2) licenses to achieve voluntary emancipation,

3) the declaration of absence or death as a consequence of the disappearance of a person,

4) the interdiction of people with disability serious mental and

5) loss of civil status or changes in an individual's name.

Three concrete examples

1- An individual owns a home and the tenant who lives in it does not pay the rent. Faced with this situation, the owner can go to a judge so that he can notify the tenant of the situation of non-payment of him or that he leaves the house. If the judge agrees to this request, the landlord already has reliable proof that proves the non-payment of rent.

2- Couples living in a common-law situation do not have legal proof that proves their romantic relationship. However, cohabitation as a de facto situation carries legal consequences, since the members of the couple are not united in marriage but it's as if they are. Thus, to demonstrate this de facto union it is possible to resort to a judge in an act of voluntary jurisdiction.

The couple asks the judge to take a statement from some witnesses so that they can prove that the couple actually forms a family nucleus, even if they do not form a marriage in the strict sense. The recognition of cohabitation can be done through a voluntary jurisdiction.

3- If a person is not autonomous as a result of a mental problem, it is possible to request a judge to declare a guardian responsible for said person. Normally the relatives or close associates of the sick mental are those who propose to the judge who could be the legal guardian of the patient.

Photo: Fotolia - Ainoa

Issues in Voluntary Jurisdiction