Guardian Ad Litem

[lawless]

The Ex has petitioned the court for a guardian ad litem claiming that she is "powerless" to help my fiance's 2 teenage girls resolve their issues with their father.  Both girls are refusing visitation due to all emotional reasons (anger because of the divorce).  I am wondering if anyone has experience with a GAL?  We are hoping that this might actually be a good thing.
Thanks for your help.

Lawless

[gipsy]

Basically the Guardian ad litem will talk to people involved and report to the court , Unfortunatly if the ex has brain washed the kids and they tell the GAl they don't want to see him the GAl will report this , But if it appears to the GAl that the girls are being brain washed etc then , She will report this also ,
  So GALS are good some are not , In wash state you take like a 3 week course to be a GAL , And there isn;t much of an intelligence test For them And my gal Was a dip #@$@$ , So Be carefull
    In My case the GAL wanted three witnesses from the both of us ,
  Niether had any witnesses that could verify the moms bogus allegations , And the GAl reported there was no witness ,
   And that I have a house job room toy;s etc all ready for My son to be at my house ,
  You may tell the GAl Mom Is behimnd the Issue of the kids not wanting to visit and , You would like some visits ordered to see igby haveing fun with them and loving them they may see things differently , And the GAl may recomend the court do that ,
  But keep this very adult  In your requests ,
 You may say you had a good relationship previous to mom thwarting the visits , And now the kids have been brain washed ,
   And If you get the kids have some one video tape so as to catch the mom if she makes a scene .

[hopeful_25]

Please be careful.  We asked for a GAL thinking this would be a good thing.  Our lawyer advised not to go in bashing dh's ex so dh didn't.  Ex on the other hand did.  When the report was done, it mentioned a lot about me(stepmom) and my family but nothing about stepfather (terminally ill) which is where we felt alot of the issues with ss were.  GAL recommended that custody and visitation not change due to father.  Later, we found out that this was GAL's first time ever doing this.  He never visited child with the parents or at the homes.  We all went to his office and he went to the school to visit teacher(friend of bm) and ss.  Overall, it was a waste of $900 so I recommend that you research the appointed GAL if possible.  Like already mentioned, some are good and some are bad.
Good luck!

[lawless]

Thanks, good advice!  Our attorney is researching potential GALs so apparently we can request a particular person.  We have no idea what to expect.   My step daughters and their mother have requested the GAL thinking that the GAL will allow the children to continue to refuse visitation based on their purely emotional reasons (upset about me, new step mom).  We are thinking this may backfire on them as there are no actual reasons for them to refuse visitation other than they don't want to come over.  The girls are teenagers.  We aren't sure why they want a GAL. The case is in Utah in case anyone has had experience there.
Lawless