FAQ: Threats
The team at Jupiter Legal Advocates has put together this threats faq list that may help answer questions you have about threats you may have received. We would love to hear from you and help you answer your questions.
Please email us at info@jla.legal so we can help you.
Threats FAQ
What can I do about threats made by my son?
My son has had a number of suicide threats, and actual attempts. He has had over 20 hospital stays.
He hits me and threatens to hurt me. He also has cut up some of my personal effects and I had to move out of my home which I am paying for because he scares me.
We have a joint lease, and he refuses to leave but he cannot afford to stay. He tells me that he wants to kill himself and that he hates life.
I need to have him committed because I fear the worst. Since he is 21, I have no rights. His father won’t do anything because he fears the boy as well.
We are on the verge of just walking away – losing the house and everything and leaving the son in the house until he gets evicted.
I need help badly!
ANSWER
If your son has threatened suicide and the threat is recent, you should immediately contact law enforcement and report this.
An officer would be dispatched and if in the officer’s opinion, your son is a danger to himself or others he will be examined for up to three days. If he is found to be a danger he can be committed.
Short of this, a petition for an involuntary guardianship may be filed in your county’s Circuit Court. The court will appoint an attorney to represent your son and a panel of a physician, and two civilian (lay) witnesses are appointed to examine your son.
If it is found that he is incompetent, he can have a guardian involuntarily appointed who can be charged with responsibility for his “person” and property. The court maintains a list of people who volunteer to be guardians, but they are usually paid.