GAL

[p5546]

In, Georgia can you hire a GAL independently?  My husband is waiting on the ex-wife to hang herself on her behavior.  He does not currently have a court date or open case.  Can he hire a GAL or an attorney for his son if he is only NCP and she has sole custody?  There is major PAS.

[wendl]

I believe you would need to file a court action and request a GAL be appointed. Be carefull though sometimes the GAL's are idiots, if you get one MAKE sure they have kids or had kids of their own. I would tell you why but I don't know if my husbands ex still reads my post.


**These are my opinions, they are not legal advice**

[babyfat]

This is what I know = in abuse/neglect proceedings GAL is always appointed by the court. In custody/divorce/visitation proceedings usually not unless it is really bad. Usually the court appoints them they are not hired by either parent because then the GAL could possibly be biased towards the parent hiring them. They are assigned by the courts. You do not usually get to pick them (although that could vary by state but in the state I'm in they are assigned not picked) Also a GAL may be of very little help toward the child. They usually around here at least seem to drag already hostile divorce cases out longer than they should and sometimes add fuel to the fire. Most know absoutly nothing about PAS or agressive parenting. They assume the child is telling the truth when in fact they may be hiding things to protect a specific parent or feel the need to speak bad about one parent to make the other parent "love" them. Now if you do manage to land a good one and there are some that are very good... you can get somewhere that you may not have been able to any other way. Judges do seem to listen to them.

[olanna]

" Also a GAL may be of very little help toward the child."

They are generally lawyers.  And no, they don't help the child in any way but tend to look for the very worst in both parents.

The GAL the court appointed for my son had no children of her own.  She was supposed to evaluate me as a parent and instead, wanted to talk about my marriage to my ex spouse, which was over 10 years post mortem.  (I had been divorced some 10 years).

When I let her know that my relationship with the child's father was nothing more than a faint memory and I was sure that relationship had no bearing on the present, as we divorced while I was pregnant.

It was, by far, the largest waste of money ever.

And you are correct, judges do tend to listen to them, because judges are just lawyers wearing black robes.