I’ve mentioned that I do a great deal of work as a Guardian ad Litem (GAL). I get appointed by the Court in a variety of cases. Adoptions/Termination of Parental Rights (TPR), custody cases involving allegations of abuse and/or neglect of a child, vulnerable adult cases, hotly contested custody cases without allegations of abuse/neglect, other cases whenever a judge feels it might be useful in resolving the case. I’ve seen many things, some of which can never be unseen. It’s tough, emotionally draining work sometimes.
If anyone has any questions about anything related to what a GAL is or does, I’ll try to answer them…
When you go to bed at night, do you feel as though you have really done anything worthwhile in your day, or are you just feeding a horribly flawed mechanism over which you have no control?
I’m not threadhitting, I’d really like to know how insiders feel about the magnitude of their frustrations trying to be Shakespeare’s little candle throwing its beam, like a good deed in a naughty world.
Depends on the type of case I’m dealing with on a particular day. The nastiest cases take a emotional toll, but are usually the easiest decisions to make. If there’s strong evidence of abuse and/or neglect, recommending whatever is necessary to get the child out of that environment is a no brainer.
The cases that keep me up at night are the close calls…neither parent is ideal, but which is best under the circumstances? In this state, the judge is not required to follow my recommendation, but if they don’t, a formal finding on the record as to why not is required. In reality, the judge is usually going to do what I recommend unless I just completely lose my mind or something. Knowing that, I go over my decision again and again from every angle. I have to get it right the first time, every time. Except that sometimes the goalposts move overnight.
If the person you’ve been appointed (that is how it works, right?) has her/his own attorney, I presume no GAL would be appointed.
What if you and the client just don’t get along, can he/she demand a new GAL? Can you decline/refuse an appointment? Can you quit, and, if so, under what circumstances.
Wild guess - there isn’t nearly enough money coming to you, given the stress of the situation?
Thanks for this. Have you done it a long time? Over time, has it been the same stream of case types and volumes? Or have things changed over time as you’ve seen it?
Family law paralegal here. Thanks for starting this thread.
Have you ever had any cases where you could not in good faith recommend any of the parties seeking custody? What did you do?
If the child is old enough, how much weight do you give to where the child wants to live? Do you see a lot of cases where the child has been coached on what to say, and what are the signs?
The attorneys I work with say it’s better for custody matters to settle out of court instead of letting a judge decide. This helps the parties co-parent more effectively. Would you say that’s true in your experience? Do you ever sit in on mediations?
Not usually. I don’t actually represent anyone most of the time. There are at least two types of GAL appointments–the “best interest” GAL and the “legal interest” GAL. Most off the time, I’m appointed as a “best interest” GAL. I do not have a client, I’m acting as an investigative arm of the court. My job is to conduct an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding a case, report my findings to the Court, and make a recommendation as to what I believe to be in the best interest of the child and/or vulnerable adult. I am not bound by the desires of the child/vulnerable adult–more about that below. There is no attorney/client relationship between me and anyone involved in the case, and no attorney client privilege either.
The other type of appointment does establish more of a traditional attorney client relationship. For example, if a child is injured in a car wreck and there is a proposed settlement, a GAL might be appointed to review the situation to determine if the settlement is fair and reasonable–considering policy limits, injuries and prognosis, strength of the evidence, costs of litigation, etc. I don’t usually do this type of thing.
I do get appointed, but generally not for a party litigant. I get appointed to protect the best interest of a child or vulnerable adult. Parents and other parties get their own lawyers or represent themselves. There is a movement towards appointing lawyers for indigent parents in TPR cases, but that is different from a GAL.
I don’t have a client, so “getting along” isn’t really an issue. I investigate, report, and recommend. Parties can either cooperate or not, but failing to cooperate has consequences that can range from sanctions from the court to me drawing an adverse inference against the person that won’t cooperate. For example, I can request a drug test. If a parent refuses, I can either ask the court to compel the test or I can assume the test would be positive and act accordingly.
Appointments come in two basic ways–attorneys for private litigants will call and ask if I’m willing to serve in a particular case. Our judges usually prefer the attorneys for the parties agree on someone to serve as GAL. Sometimes, however, I get appointed from the bench–meaning that the judge, at any stage of the proceedings, determines to appoint a GAL. In those instances, I get a call from the judge or someone at the judge’s office, asking if I’m willing and available.
Depends on the court and the case. I sometimes work in the juvenile court at a set rate that varies slightly by county, but is usually $50-$75 per hour. In those cases, I get paid by the county. I know I’m going to get paid, eventually, but it takes some paperwork to get it done. I also take appointments in private cases where I’m paid by the litigants.
I’ve been involved with a couple of these cases, which were years ago. I am still “shaking my head” at the “parenting skills” (or lack thereof) I have witnessed.
With that said and all the cases you have been involved with… I can imagine your head is about to fall off due to a prolonged stretch of head shaking? (I can imagine!)
A GAL is required in every adoption that involves an involuntary termination of parental rights. Due to a recent major change in the law, many (but not all) judges are requiring a GAL in every adoption, even when it is a step-parent adopting with the consent of the bio parent.
As touched on above, appointments happen in several ways. In the juvenile court, there are three local attorneys under contract to serve as GAL in all of the child protective services cases. I’m the first alternate, meaning if any of those three lawyers have a conflict, get sick, or are otherwise unable to work, I get called in to replace them.
In private cases, local judges prefer for the attorneys to agree on someone to serve as GAL, so I get a call from one of them asking if I’m willing and available. Sometimes, a judge will decide (at any stage of litigation) that a GAL is needed and appoint me from the bench. The best way to get these appointments is to be in the court room when the need arises, but I do get phone calls from judges or their staff asking if I’m available and willing.
I’ve developed relationships with a local adoption agency and a local orphanage so I get almost all the GAL work from them.
In this state, all GALs must take annual re-certification classes, and there’s a list of everyone who’s certified available on the internet. In theory, I could be appointed anywhere in the state, but in practice I mostly get appointed within my local area.
It is sort of a niche practice area. Not every lawyer, and not every family law practitioner does it. I have to re-certify annually–meaning I attend a day long seminar every year at my own expense–to be eligible to serve as a GAL.
I like the work for a variety of reasons–from a purely practical point of view, it pays the bills. From a more personal point of view, I like to think I can make a difference–protect a child, give that child a chance at a better life.
The case types are similar–is this family suitable to adopt? Should that parent’s parental rights be terminated? Who should have custody of this child? Has anyone abused or neglected this child/vulnerable adult? Does this vulnerable adult need a conservator, even when they really don’t want one?
One thing that has changed is social media. I’m seeing social media–Facebook, Twitter and text messages–all the time. I’m constantly amazed at how people will just destroy their cases with what they post, People will lie, “Oh, no, I’d never do X” and then the other side will produce pictures/texts of them doing exactly X.
Meth has changed the world. There are lots of other drugs, but the worst cases I see always involve meth. I don’t know of anything else that will just turn a person’s world to shit as quickly as meth.
Yes I have. My first option there is to recommend the child be placed with a suitable relative. Often, the grandparents…or great grandparents…will step up and seek custody. If there are no family members willing or suitable, then I will recommend the child be placed in state custody.
Every case is different. I want to know why the child wants to live with this parent over that parent. If the kid makes a reasonable choice, I’m going to put a lot of weight on it. If I think a kid has been promised something for picking a parent–smart phone, computer, game, car, vacation, whatever–I give it virtually no weight. If I think a kid made a poor choice, I’m free to recommend the other parent.
Not that many. Coaching does happen, but i think it is less effective than people think. I look for inconsistencies. If a child tells me something wildly different from information I got from other sources, i want to dig deeper. In some situations, I will have the child evaluated by an appropriate professional.
Yes, I think people are usually going to be happier in the long run with something they’ve agreed to rather than something imposed upon them. To a certain extent, a lot of what I do is comparable to a mediation. Knowing that the judges are likely to follow my recommendation, the attorneys often settle along the lines of my recommended outcome.
I’m reaching that stage, with mixed results. I also do public defender work in juvenile court, and I get to see several kids I defended there on the news a few years later, shackled and on their way to adult prison for stupid stuff fairly often. Just recently had a bright kid from a rough background go up for armed robbery. Kid never really had a chance at life and now he’s thrown what little chance he had away.
In a few cases, a kid I served as GAL for (or the parent) will send me pictures from their graduation or military news.
I do see some of the viscous cycle of poverty–kids born in to poverty, dealing with drug/substance issues giving birth to their own kids that are almost immediately taken into foster care and in about 15-18 years, give or take, will have their own kids–etc. That’s frustrating.
I’m a lawyer. My state does allow non-lawyers to serve as a GAL, but if that happens then the Court also has to appoint an attorney to handle legal matters.
To become certified, I have to attend a seminar once a year. There’s a list available through the Bar of all the people certified to serve as GAL.
Is attending the seminar all that is required to become a GAL? In theory, can anyone become a GAL by registering for and surviving (heh) the seminar, or do only certain people get the opportunity to attend the seminar? For example, do you have to pass an entrance exam? Is it lottery based? Do you have to be recommended by an existing GAL?
How much discretion does a GAL typically have to make their own recommendations without being forced by existing policies, standards, or rules of inference? For example, would a GAL be more likely to say, “The child’s bedroom contains 100 parts per million of mold according to a measurement taken on October 14 by one of those Certified Mold Detection Guys. More than 50 parts per million of mold constitutes neglect per se under Family Adjudication Law 33.4 Subsection Q Addendum 3, therefore NEGLECT! Terminate them parental rights! We’ll teach them to neglect a child!” or “Based on my holistic analysis of the child’s overall home situation with reference to the cultural, economic, educational, religious, and epistemological backgrounds of all the family members, the parents lack of emotional support for their child rises to what in my professional opinion constitutes clinically significant neglect. I recommend termination of parental rights.”?