Guardianship as a Necessary Party

The law protects minors on a variety of issues.  The law in Tennessee and Mississippi is essentially that a minor can do nothing without Court approval.  Many times minors are the beneficiaries of estates or personal injury settlements.  In order to compromise these claims, Court approval is necessary and this normally means filing for a guardianship where the Court can monitor any funds received by a minor.  Many of the judges I practice in front of and I tend to agree with them that a guardianship becomes a necessary party to any action to compromise these claims involving minors. As such, without a guardianship either being set up first or in the order compromising a claim, this may render any release void legally.