And the impact that it has on our children.
The link we have provided is to an interview given by the Director of the Center for Judicial Excellence. They are an advocacy group that works for Judicial and Guardian ad litem reform based out of California but with a national focus. The interview is amazing in that the Director talks about Judicial and Guardian ad litem abuse and how it impacts the lives of our children. How evidence is ignored by the court and that we are creating a social cost to society - people and more importantly the children that Guardian ad litems are supposed to represent are growing up with a mistrust of the court system. This because quite often Guardian ad litems do not advocate for the 'best interest of the child' or what is safe for our children.
There needs to be change to the system that creates and manages Guardian ad litems in the state of Maine. Oversight can not be had by the Judicial branch nor by trade organizations such as the Guardian ad litem Institute.
Click this link: Center for Judicial Excellence and press the green arrow to start the interview. The interview lasts just under 10 minutes.
If you have had issues with a Guardian ad litem please contact us at: meGALalert@gmail.com
This is excellent. It is not new to us here in Maine, but it is helpful to see the common judicial/GAL issues articulated so well by a speaker with a national perspective.
ReplyDeleteRequired reading for "consumers"!
Love her comment about GALs and courts using "junk science" to justify custody decisions. Maine's GALshave to be the "junk scientist" champions of the country.
ReplyDeleteWe have heard a lot from citizens that had been subjected to "junk science" by their Guardian ad litem. The court system appears to support those GALs making these off the wall type of comments. There is a lack of common sense in the court system today.
DeleteWhat is very troubling is the use of GALs by courts as pseudo experts in psychology, family social issues and behavior. Many cases are filled with "psychobabble", meaningless phrases that sound authentic, and judgements get made on this stuff.
ReplyDeleteOne of our favorites issues is the ever-popular, bogus "anger management" therapy, which gets prescribed by some GALs for any normal expression of anger, any heated disagreement with their opinion. There is no notion of "normal anger". No differentiation of normal anger from various degrees of anger as a symptom of a diagnosable clinical form of mental illness. So normal people are referred for the regulation of normal "anger", a normal human emotion.
We can see possibilities for a whole human emotional management "industry". What about "normal sadness management" or "excessive happiness management" or "boredom management, etc."? The range of human emotion for which GALs might prescribe corrective therapy is nearly endless., and the possibilities for job creation in managing emotions is nearly endless. Mind control? it is one of the examples of GAL bullying when anger management gets prescribed for normal human anger.
Many of these "psychobabble" formulations spouted by GALs would be humorous, if life shattering family and child decisions weren't being based on them. But ... judges and the judiciary don't seem to be falling off the bench laughing!
Counseling when it is prescribed by anyone should have an explicitly stated purpose. This person needs counseling because_____. There should be a specific goal that can be spelled out, and there should be an estimated target time frame- one month, 6 months, 9 months, etc. There should be progress reports along the way. And ... counseling should be entered into willingly without any element of implied threat. Do counseling, or you won't see your child until he/she is 18 years old!
ReplyDeleteWithout these conditions, counseling is a form of bullying- by the court and GALs, which aims at "soft brainwashing". This is unacceptable in a democratic society
The complaints that we have seen this has come up quite often. The person complies with the request and often will do so several times with no clear understanding of why but knowing that this is the only way to be able to see their child. It is cruel and inhuman punishment. Maine's Judges in supporting these recommendations and behavior are just as guilty as the Guardian ad litems and should be held accountable. Unfortunately the court system is very self serving and where one would expect to find Justice one finds the opposite. Where has common sense gone in the American court system?
DeleteJudges in family courts have come to rely heavily on GALs and promote the idea that courts would be overloaded with cases and function less efficiently without them. We believe that this a very arguable theory. GAL spin out their time very inefficiently and nonetheless frequently overlook serious safety and fitness issues. Their 'ex parte' discussions of the case and their use by courts as 'de facto' experts destroys impartiality and fairness.
ReplyDeleteEliminating 'ex parte' and the role of a GAL as "expert" would go a long way to correcting the problems that consumers experience.
I could only listen to the part where the woman was stating how many children are placed in the "abusive" home with unsupervised visits. Why? Because this is my child's NIGHTMARE every day! When he was 5 years old, he said he wanted to kill himself as I walked him back to daddy's car as it was the end of MY Mother's Day visit.
ReplyDeleteThe GAL (our 3rd one) has actually jumped on the grenade so to speak on numerous times for dad and in doing so has placed my child in great danger. Not only is my child in danger but I have had to listen to my child cite the murder plot that was going to be carried out at dad's house because NO ONE is listening to his/her story.
For 4 years my child has begged, cried, pleaded, threatened,verbalized etc. what is being done and how payback is going to be awesome when he/she gets a little older.
The attorney's, GALs, CASAs, and everyone who have touched this case have sided with the father because of the almighty dollar. Yep, you guessed it, I am a pro-se mother. I am to the point where I am not afraid to go to jail for doing a news piece regarding the injustice being done to my child.
I am sickened when I hear all the lying and biased banter that goes on outside the courtroom among the GALs and attorneys. It's disgusting! It sounds like these people are shooting craps with people's lives, but their actually gambling with a child's life!
There was a woman who stated that the court system kept her daughter tied up with GALs, supervised visits, attorneys, trials etc. from age 2 till she turned 18. She went on to state that she overheard one of the lawyers boast about making over a half a million dollars in fees on just one kid!
This system is broken and I truly believe in my heart that because the GAL has covered for dad so many times and my child trusts NO ONE, that my child will either commit suicide or will carry out one of the many murderous scenarios that has been shared with me. (Yes, I reported it in the beginning but I caught on quick! No, more sharing with the court. Technology will hopefully, help free my child.)
I too trust no one at this point and watch helplessly as a beautiful child is snuffed out just because I don't have money to hire any attorney nor to battle out a whole lot of nothing in court. There are no charges against me. I just don't have the big bucks to pay these "whores of the court," (pardon my language) but, that's the term I hear used a lot.
I pray that someone picks up my news story because I'm not sure how many supervised visit reports a GAL has to see where there is talk of murder, suicide, abuse and punishment for telling your mother you love her at the end of her supervised visit by the other party before he helps the child instead of the one with the money!
We want to thank you for sharing your story. It is sad that a system that is supposed to be fair and just gets perverted by a few people who think they are doing their jobs well. GALs and the Judiciary look down on the consumers forced to use their services. That attitude is in need of change.
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