What to Know About a Guardian Ad Litem in Massachusetts

A guardian Ad Litem is appointed in cases where there are custody issues. It could be who the child is going to live with primarily, it could be what the parenting plan is going to be or it could be some obscure like who is going to make a decision over health issues or something like that but typically, it’s a custody case. A custody case where one parent wants the child and the other parent thinks they’re entitled to have the child live with them primarily. What a guardian ad litem does is they investigate on behalf of the court. They’ll talk to collaterals. Collaterals are anybody involved in the child’s life who knows the child and obviously knows the parents. So the collaterals might be physicians, teachers, daycare providers, coaches and anybody involved in that child’s life. Then the guardian ad litem will make a recommendation to the court as to how the case should be decided.

Keep in mind though that the judge remains the judge and the judge doesn’t have to follow the guardian ad litem recommendations. However, judges have respect for guardian at litems and the work that they do. Typically, their perception would be that the guardian ad litem had the opportunity to view everything first-hand as opposed to the opportunity to see or have witnesses in the trial. They rely on guardian ad litems to do a good job and they typically do a good job. The court, for the most part, does follow a guardian ad litem recommendation. As a general matter, when a guardian ad litem makes a recommendation, the case would typically settle at that point.

This informational blog post was provided by Cynthia Hanley, an experienced Massachusetts Divorce Lawyer.