With over 40% of annual births in Indiana involving unmarried parents, and 28-38% of all Indiana marriages ending in divorce, custodial decisions, which will impact every facet of a child’s life, including education, religion, and their physical and mental health and development, though somber, should be on the forefront of every parents’ mind.
Unfortunately, most parents are not inclined to spend significant time contemplating the consequences of custodial decisions until those decisions have long been made and parents are now constrained to desperate attempts at remedying what has already been broken.
How does one present to a Court in one short hearing the crucial details related to the custodial relationship in their child’s best interest?
Enter a Guardian Ad Litem.
A Guardian Ad Litem, often referred to simply as a “GAL,” is a court-appointed advocate whose responsibility is to represent the subject child, children’s, or incapacitated adult’s, best interest in child custody, paternity, divorce, or neglect or abuse cases.
The GAL’s role in these proceedings is to serve as the Court’s eyes and ears. The GAL will assess the child’s relationships, home conditions, needs, preferences, and concerns by meeting and speaking with the child, child’s family members, friends, providers or other close meaningful associates, and observing the child’s home, school and possibly other frequented environments, even reviewing the child’s relevant medical, school and counseling records which may be pertinent to determining what is in the child’s best interest.
The GAL will then submit a report to the presiding Court detailing their observations and recommendations based thereon.
While a Guardian Ad Litem’s report is not a final determination, the report is given significant weight in custody and parenting time decisions and provides the Court a much more in depth analysis of what is in the child’s best interest, given a wider breadth of factors than could be elicited in the confines of testimony within a two hour hearing.
Additionally, the rules of evidence do not apply as stringently to a Guardian Ad Litem’s report and thus the report itself may serve to facilitate the inclusion of inadmissible, yet crucial, information regarding the child’s best interest.
Recognizing the critical role GAL’s play in cases to which they are appointed, the state of Indiana, effective as of January 1, 2025, has implemented strict and thorough guidelines to ensure the appropriate registration, case management and suitable and uniform reporting of Guardian Ad Litems appointed within the state.
Dennis, Wenger, & Abrell, as home to one of only four total registered and qualified Guardian Ad Litems in Delaware County, Mrs. Cierra Van Cleave, is proud to offer this service to families in Delaware, and contiguous counties, who seek a compassionate, caring and competent individual to delve into the facts and basis supporting a truly informative and all encompassing best interest determination.