Experts: CT Court Guardians ad Litem; Serving the Children’s or Their Own ‘Best Interest’?
March 11, 2022
Catherine Sloper, Author, Blogger, Victim of Family Court
Catharine Sloper wrote the Very Best of Divorce in Connecticut, based on her blog, Divorce in Connecticut. When there is high conflict, GALs get involved in a family they previously knew nothing about and pass judgment. Often, GALs will pursue policies or make statements and judgments about the families they are working for, which are profoundly hurtful and false, and then use them to deny one or the other parent access to their children. If you review their reports, they are based extensively on hearsay and malicious gossip rather than facts and data, and few witnesses are asked to verify their statements with documentary evidence. GALs are paid $200 to $800 per hour. In a single year, the GAL, in my case, earned $35,000. This means that a GAL would need three child clients to make more than one hundred thousand dollars a year. Most active GALs have well over three child clients. Once a GAL report is out, both parties are under extremely high pressure to accept the GAL report and recommendation. In my case, the judge ruled that I could not see the GAL report even though I had to pay for it. This happens in many cases.
A CT Judge: There’s a Problem
Judge Thomas Moukawsher wrote in a decision that CT Family Court “isn’t serving the public interest very well…. In some cases, over-analysis by costly experts and guardians-ad-litem has unfairly delayed cases from getting decided or has even financially broken the parties with enormous expenses. Judges traditionally don’t police this aspect of a case, so it has too often gotten out of hand.”
CT Mothers’ Hero, Keith Harmon Snow
Keith Harmon Snow wrote one of the most widely quoted books on the Family Court that wrest children from their mothers: The Worst Interest of the Child. The guardian ad litem serves a gatekeeper function placing lawyers in positions of power, manipulation, and coercive control. Corruption and judicial abuse is being perpetrated through GAL systems. Connecticut courts conspire to assist GALs…. in abusing and denying the constitutional and human rights of protective mothers… GALs have quasi-judicial powers allowing them to commit procedural crimes and threaten protective parents — it’s not just moms — with sanctions that include reductions in visitation rights with their children. The decisions by these GALS have been rubber-stamped by the CT courts.
State Rep. Gonzalez: Eliminate GALs
The CT Latino News reported: State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez said that parents tap into retirement funds or children’s college savings to pay GAL fees, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more. The way guardians ad litem are paid — billing by the hour, with no cap — gives them an incentive to prolong conflicts while leaving parents with little choice but to pay. “We don’t need guardians ad litem, period,” Gonzalez said.
Problematic Role of GALs
Richard Ducote, an attorney, is one of the nation’s leading child abuse/domestic violence litigators and law reformers. He writes:
Jill Plancher