The actress is named as a defendant in a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, in which her adult kids -- acting as representatives of her estate -- are suing her and Netflix over what they claim is the unauthorized use of their family's image and likeness in this upcoming series.

Of course, the show features Sofia playing the late Griselda in her heyday as one of the most prominent drug lords in the world -- but now, her children are trying to prevent it from coming out next week ... running to court and asking the judge for an injunction to block its release.

The gist of their argument boils down to this ... Griselda's son, Michael, claims he'd been doing interviews for years now with some guys who were trying to get his life story -- and that of his mother -- on paper in the hopes of developing it into a production of some sort. He alleges these interviews he did with them date back to '09 all the way through 2022.

Michael claims that these fellas he was consulting with not only wanted to develop his narrative into a show, but into a book as well -- and he says they told him they'd start shopping it around Hollywood in 2016. He alleges they pitched it to a producer ... ahead of a meeting with Netflix about it. Michael claims he was then told Netflix was interested -- but that they didn't wanna use any of his details or consultations from the interviews he'd done.

Fast-forward to the present, and Michael claims he's learned this new 'Griselda' show does, in fact, lean on a lot of his anecdotes and material ... but he says he never saw a dime.

That's why he and his siblings are suing -- alleging Netflix basically ripped off their family story and weaved it into the plot of their show ... and the kids claim use of their own images and likenesses in the show without their permission violate their rights.

The lawsuit doesn't specifically say that Netflix can't depict their mother -- a public figure -- but it's clear the kids believe their likenesses and interview materials were used to make it -- presumably meaning they're depicted in the actual show in some capacity -- so they want a judge to step in ASAP to stop it.

The show is supposed to come out on Jan. 25 ... but the Blanco children wanna pump the brakes. SV is an EP on this thing BTW -- which seems to explain why she's roped in.