Should I get a GAL?
A reader asked:
I filed for more custody of my children. I already have 50/50. My ex is pushing now for a guardian ad litem [GAL] since she likely will lose custody.
Do you have any experts you know who are completely against GALs I can speak to?”
RESPONSE:
You may lose all, if you get a GAL. With the appointment of a GAL, you lose control over the most important decisions regarding the children.
A GAL might look quite average at first glance
GALs are never neutral. They act friendly until you sign the retainer agreement. Then, once you sign, they are in charge. They have de-facto custody. They will do your wishes only if there is a tacit understanding that you will allow them to bill as much as they want on your case and that you will pay them.
Do NOT Consent to a GAL Ever
Remember, GALs DO NOT represent you, though you pay them. They do not represent ‘the best interest of the children,’ though that is their hypocritically deceptive front.
GALs represent themselves, the lawyers who refer them, and the therapists they refer.
Your family law attorney will ‘innocently’ recommend the solution is getting the court to appoint a GAL.
The GAL will begin by recommending to the judge that your custody dispute requires a custody evaluator. The evaluator will find either “parental alienation” or “abuse,” depending on whom she has been instructed to flip custody to: you or your spouse.
The GAL will endorse the custody evaluators determination, and the court will go along with the GAL.
It will cost a lot of money.
If you have a lot of money and like to abuse your children, a GAL may be helpful, otherwise not.
The custody evaluator always finds a need for therapy for the family and the kids, maybe you and your spouse, and will recommend her and the GAL’s associates, who will provide therapy and more therapy, and report to the GAL to reinforce the desired result.
The custody evaluator is usually connected to the close-knit network of GALs and family law attorneys.
Family law attorneys are connected to the family court judges.
You will soon find everyone owns your kids for profit, and they will own your pocketbook too.
If you don’t pay, the judge will order you to pay and if you don’t find you in contempt, and put you in jail [debtors prison] without a jury trial.
The judge always sides with the GAL.
You might reconsider not going for more than 50-50 if it requires a GAL—unless you have more money than your spouse, a lot more.
If the fight is intense, or they can stoke it to be intense [high-conflict], GALs can find ways to bill for $200k or more and get the result an affluent spouse is willing to purchase.
The GAL flipping custody to the abusive parent
I will say it again:
You and your spouse lose parental control of your children once a GAL is appointed.
GALs trump parents in family court on determining “the best interest of YOUR children.”
GALs are paid by the hour. The more trouble they make, the more money they make.
The inherent conflict is so obvious, yet honest parents don’t see it.
The GAL is not a trained expert in children’s health, and wellbeing.
GALs are usually lawyers trained in adversarial law and how to make money off of strife.
GALs are calculating, usually sinister animals, who may spend less than a few hours with your kids and make decisions for them based on what brings the GAL more money, even if it traumatizes your children.
The therapist comes in to support the GALs profit-making decision.
They often calculate to flip custody away from the children’s primary attachment figure to the abuser with money, since the protective parent will fight and this will require the abuser to pay—pay for lawyers, therapists, and the GAL to intervene and prove the protective parent is an alienator, is mentally unwell, is dangerous, is the real abuser and should have no contact with the children [unless the protective parent sees the children with a paid visitation supervisor referred by the GAL].
Slick abusers often convey a much better image to the court, especially when they are paying the court actors.
Women can also be abusive parents too and often make false claims of abuse against the protective parent.
GALs drive protective parents to the poorhouse and insane with grief, while they enable the abusers—for a price—to take devilish delight in harming the other spouse and the kids.
The therapist trained in parental alienation syndrome is trained to repudiate valid child sex abuse claims and call it parental alienation.
Sometimes this is a good investment for the abusive parent. If they are a child molester, for instance, the GAL can help prove the protective parent is insane and manipulated the kids to make up their claims. The GAL then can tell the court that the protective parent alienates the children, coercing them to lie about the sexual abuse.
The molester gets the children and does not go to prison, and the GAL, the lawyers, the therapists, and other court actors, make more money — a win, win – for everyone but the children and the protective parent.
The GAL almost always has cases where there is true child abuse, which must be ignored and denied and flipped on the accuser to make the most money. They do not think much of it, for that is almost the sole purpose for the existence of the GAL, – to deny abuse and support the convert other families’ assets to their own families.
If you fight too hard, experts will come in to testify you are mentally unwell and an alienator.
As GALs say, ‘this is the business we have chosen.”
Never use a GAL. Work it out with your spouse before it is too late.
