My 18yo Friend's Mother Filed For Legal Guardianship Under Article 17a. They're Planning To Dispute It In Court. What Do We Do?

My friend’s mother is trying to get legal guardianship over them under Article 17A. We live in NY state. The government says that Article 17A is for guardianship of an intellectually or developmentally disabled adult. My friend, who turned 18 a few months ago, has diagnosed ADHD, anxiety and depression, as well as likely undiagnosed autism, but they are a capable person who has intentions of working and does not fall into this category in my opinion. They’re very smart, but they have specific interests and things that fall outside of that often are ignored. On top of that, they frequently don’t manage to make it to school, so I’m willing to bet they aren’t getting great grades, but they’re certainly getting grades enough to pass senior year.

My friend has ceded over medical decisions to their mother already, because they didn’t really know how the medical system first and their mother requested it. When they did this, they had no idea that their mother was planning this. To be clear, I’m not a legal expert (obviously) so I’m not sure how they did that or what they signed exactly.

My friend is planning to dispute this in court in a few weeks. So far, the date that has been scheduled is one where their mother is not in town, but she’s trying to change that. Hopefully that doesn’t work out for her. If they win the dispute, they are planning to cut her and their dad off completely and move in with a friend in a different state. To be clear, their parents are divorced.

Should the guardianship go through, their dad would be their proxy guardian should something happen to their mother. Their dad has had CPS called on him for abuse before. While their mom has not had CPS called on them for abuse, she has hit them before, but not frequently. Still, it did leave a mark on their eye, but we did not document it at the time (stupid, I know). She also isolated them for months after they left school early last year and didn’t come back. Now they’re doing senior year in a hybrid school kind of situation. I don’t know the details on how that works.

Another thing that might be completely unrelated but I think could also be relevant is that in the past, my friend was booked into a psych ward for a day or two after they ran away for a few hours. They used to be very suicidal. Now, they are doing a lot better, up until recently (for obvious reasons). They still have depression and have issues getting to school sometimes but it was steadily improving until this whole debacle.

Now that I’ve outlined the situation, I’ll list some questions I have:

1. How will this work in court? Does my friend need a lawyer? Apparently they have to dispute it at our local surrogate court, but we have no idea how this works or what to do. I want to support them if possible, but I likely won’t be able to attend since I have a surgery that day that I probably can’t reschedule. Should I gather mutual friends who could testify on their behalf? Is testifying even a thing in this case?

2. How strong is their mother’s case against them? From what I’ve read, the description of someone under Article 17A guardianship doesn’t match them. They are intelligent, speak well, and are capable of functioning in daily life. Yes, they have depression, ADHD and anxiety, but so do I, and so do half of our friend group. Does that really match the criteria for such a strict guardianship?

3. Assuming that their mother does show up, how will that affect the whole case?

4. What should they say to ensure they have the best chance at freedom?

Thank you for reading. I would really appreciate people chiming in. If I’m honest, this is really worrying me. I feel kind of powerless. For so long, they’ve worked hard to get better and have fought an uphill battle. And their mom is just shitting on that with this. So please, if you have any relevant information or know someone who does, please help.