A guardianship is a legal proceeding whereby one person is appointed by the court to be responsible for meeting the physical needs of another legally incapacitated person (called the "respondent").
In the case of an adult respondent, it is essentially a lawsuit, the object of which is to have one person declared incompetent, and to have another person appointed to act on behalf of the first. Once declared incompetent, the person over whom a guardianship is imposed has very little power or authority to change their circumstances. It has been said that next to incarceration, guardianship is the most serious threat to individual liberty and freedom in our society.