Guardians ad Litem; Parenting Coordinators; Custody Evaluators, etc.


This category includes the various forms of so-called ADR (alternate dispute resolution) practitioners, such as GALs, parenting coordinators, parenting evaluators, forensic psychologists, recommending mediators, special masters, court-ordered therapists, other court-appointed mental health professionals, supervised visitation centers, and other profiteers of "therapeutic jurisprudence", whose methods involve -- in non-criminal cases -- intrusion and coercion under the threat of court sanctions, and actual or de facto extra-judicial decision-making.

This website heavily criticizes all of these practices, which have multiple things wrong with them, not the least of which is denigration of due process, and the diminution of a publicly observable, regulated, and appealable "rule by law" by substituting the caprice of men and women.

These practices have been promoted as "cures" for ailings of the court system and the litigants in it by self-serving persons who apparently are ignorant, or else just do not care about the harms they cause to children and their parents because they make money from the ideas they promote, churning profit in proceedings that fly in the face of the foundations of our justice system. The bulk of these materials are listed in the section on PSYCHOLOGY. Also see the sections on the specific substantive issues, such as child development or parental alienation.

  • Court-appt'd Parenting Evaluators and GALs: The Case for Abolition by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians ad Litem in Custody Litigation: The Case for Abolition by Richard Ducote PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians for Profit: LA Times expose, elder abuse by professional conservators by LA Times Staff
  • Parenting Coordination Issues (outline) by liz
  • Parenting Coordinators, Practical Considerations by liz
  • The Proper Role of Mental Health Professionals in Domestic Violence Cases by Barry Goldstein, Esq. Editorial
  • Troubling Admission of Supervised Visitation Records in Court by Stern/Oehme PDF SCHOLAR
  • What's Wrong with Parenting Coordination by liz