Working With GALs and Parenting Evaluators: 20 Tips for Parents in Family Law Cases

Introduction

If you are involved in a divorce, paternity or nonparental custody case where the other parent does not agree with you, the court may appoint a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) or Parenting Evaluator. A GAL may be an attorney, social worker, or psychologist in private practice, or a community volunteer (Court Appointed Special Advocate or CASA). In some instances, the court may appoint a parenting evaluator rather than a GAL on your case. Whether a GAL or an evaluator is appointed will depend on the financial resources of the parents, the lower-fee or free GAL/evaluation resources in your county, and sometimes the specific issues in your case. In some counties, for example, a Family Court Services social worker may be appointed to your case as a parenting evaluator; or, the evaluator may be a psychologist or psychiatrist in private practice.

GALs and private parenting evaluators generally charge per-hour for their time, and the court may order one or both parties to pay those fees. A CASA GAL is a volunteer and that program does not charge parties for that GAL's time. Family Court Services charges a sliding-scale fee to both parents, depending on each parent's individual income. Regardless of how or whether the GAL or evaluator is paid, that person is supposed to represent or investigate your children's interests in the court case. A GAL is appointed to represent your child's best interests, and to advocate for those best interests to the court. The GAL should be served with all legal papers and hearing notices, and generally must appear at those hearings. The GAL does not represent you or the other parent. A parenting evaluator does an investigation of each parent and the children to find out what is in the children's best interests and makes a recommendation to the court, but is less involved in the case in that an evaluator does not actually represent your child's interests. Despite their differences, both a GAL and a Parenting Evaluator will make recommendations to the court about which parent should have custody of the children, how much visitation the other parent should have, and whether either parent should be required to do other things (such as drug treatment) in order to be able to spend time with the children.

This publication is intended for people who already have a GAL or parenting evaluator assigned to their cases