Reviewing or Changing a Guardianship Appointment

A guardian is appointed for an indefinite length of time. That means they remain the Protected Person’s guardian until one of three events happen: the guardian passes away; the Protected Person passes away; or the Court terminates the guardianship. The Protected Person, or any other person interested in their welfare, can ask the Court to review the guardianship.

There are many reasons to ask the Court to review the guardianship, such as:

• re-evaluating the Protected Person’s level of incapacity and their ability make decisions compared to the time of the original appointment; 
• the appropriateness of the decisions made by the guardian; 
• whether another guardian should be appointed instead; or 
• a general check-in on the status of the Protected Person’s welfare. 

How to Request a Court Review

To ask the Court to review the guardianship, the Protected Person, or any person interested in their welfare, just needs to contact the Judge hearing the guardianship case.  Click here to visit the New Mexico Courts’ Case Lookup. Use the Protected Person’s name or the Docket Number (a number at the top of the first page of any pleading in the guardianship case, beginning with “D-”) to look up the case.