Family law experts push legal framework to guide guardian ad litem reform in Washington

When Washington judges are ruling on custody cases fraught with allegations of abuse, the court can appoint an investigator meant to represent the “best interests of the child.”

That investigator, called a guardian ad litem, often makes potentially life or death recommendations regarding a child’s safety in some of the most complex family court cases involving domestic violence and mental illness.

But guardians ad litem, commonly referred to as GALs, generally aren’t required to have any professional expertise on those issues. Many, as in the case InvestigateWest reported on recently, are lawyers who are typically requested by a parent’s attorney — raising questions about conflicts of interest when attorneys push for specific guardians ad litem who they believe will favor their client.

Some legislators, family law attorneys and advocates think there’s a better way. To ensure that guardians ad litem are protecting children as fully as possible, they’re looking toward a model code on domestic and family violence developed by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, a nonprofit judicial membership organization that works to improve policy affecting families and abuse victims. The statutory framework recommended by the nonprofit specifies that people conducting custody evaluations in cases involving domestic abuse should be licensed mental health professionals with extensive knowledge of domestic and child abuse.

“Licensed mental health professionals have expertise that attorneys don’t have,” said Anne Hirsch, a retired Thurston County Superior Court judge who was part of a work group to create the recommendations. “These are our kids and our families, and the model code requires that the people who make recommendations about what is going to happen with them have good qualifications to be doing so.”

For guardians ad litem who are not licensed mental health professionals, the code says they can still do custody evaluations but shouldn’t make recommendations to the court about parenting arrangements. Rather, their role should be limited to gathering and analyzing information about the case.

No state has yet adopted the updated model code, which was released in December 2022. But Washington is at the “cutting edge” of enhancing how custody laws address domestic violence, said Darren Mitchell, a fellow with the council who helped develop the code. For example, a family law bill signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in April includes guidance drawn from the code regarding limitations imposed on parents with histories of domestic violence.

“Many professionals working in this field don't have this level of expertise, and if they don’t, it can be doing real harm in making recommendations that don't account for domestic violence,” Mitchell said.

Washington’s guardian ad litem certification training, updated in 2018, is required by most counties in order to serve as a guardian ad litem and includes a module on domestic violence. While Hirsch saw this as a step forward, she noted that the model code goes further, setting out the “gold standard” for guardian ad litem training and qualifications. She encourages state legislators to consider the code as they pass bills to keep families safe.

"Washington has been a leader in the field of domestic violence and parenting for many years,” Hirsch said. “If state legislators wish to keep moving forward, they can and should use the model code as a guide in doing so."

If the model code had been in place years ago, it could have made a difference for Washington mother Gina Bloom, who lost custody of her kids to her domestic abuser in 2021 after the court took recommendations by the guardian ad litem, who was then an attorney in Snohomish County. Despite claiming no credentials for diagnosing mental illness, he repeatedly reported that Bloom might have a personality disorder — an assertion that contradicted her medical records and ultimately contributed to the court’s decision that she posed a greater danger to her kids than their father, Bloom’s abuser and alleged rapist.

“I had full custody. I had my children. I wasn't mentally unstable until this guardian ad litem entered my case and diagnosed me,” Bloom said. “We need to diminish the power that guardians ad litem have, because the minute they walk into a court and they say, ‘The mother has multiple personality disorders,’ the court adopts that.”

Evangeline Stratton, a Washington attorney who helped Bloom appeal her family law case, met with state representatives earlier this year to try to get a version of the code introduced in the Legislature. But her efforts didn’t gain much traction, she said.

“I think the model code is really helpful for the vast majority of folks who are in family court who are dealing with abuse and post-separation abuse,” said Stratton, who has worked with many domestic violence survivors who say they weren’t believed when they told the court that their children were impacted by abuse.

Rep. Jamila Taylor, D-Federal Way, told InvestigateWest she plans to address guardian ad litem reform — but only after the state revises its law on parenting plan restrictions, which is central to the cases that guardians ad litem are assigned to. Taylor sponsored House Bill 1620 with that goal in mind. The legislation, which takes effect in July and draws from the model code, has gotten support from some domestic violence survivors and pushback from others who fear that it will make it easier — not harder — for courts to ignore the impacts of domestic abuse on children.

“I can't address the GAL without addressing the statutes that they need to work within,” Taylor said. “I'm taking it in a methodical step-by-step process.”

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is now having conversations with judges, lawyers and victim advocates around the country about how they can apply the policies in the model code to their jurisdictions.

“If someone makes an allegation of domestic violence, the code doesn't say ‘believe it’ or ‘assume that it’s true.’ You have to do your fact-finding,” Mitchell said. “But if domestic abuse is a factor, you better understand it before you start deciding what's in the best interest of the child.”