We accept cases as court-appointed minor's counsel
or as privately retained minor's counsel.
Children are often caught in the middle of their parents' overzealous advocacy. It is our mission to lower the temperature in high-conflict custody cases and to return the focus to the needs of the children, not the desires of the parents, and to gather information for the advocacy on behalf of the minor child or minor children. Unfortunately, parents will often enlist their children in their fight with the other parent. What parents sometimes do not fully appreciate, is that their custody battle may have disastrous effects on children, which could even negatively affect them in adulthood. Parents have a responsibility to not involve their children in their custody battle, and to shield them from parental conflict.
Court Appointed Minor's Counsel Cases
When I am court appointed, I have been entrusted with a significant responsibility to make sure the child or children I represent have their best interests at the forefront of all decisions made in their parent's case, and to advocate on their behalf. (When I use the word "parent", I also mean each child's legal guardian involved as a party in the custody dispute.) I believe that each decision impacting the child or children I represent must be made with careful consideration of his or her needs, rights, health, safety and welfare.
Our shared goal, which I hope the parents will join in, is to ensure that the proceedings no longer have a negative impact on their child or children. My approach is grounded in a belief that if the parents, and all attorneys involved, prioritize each child's best interest, the resolution reached by all involved is inherently more meaningful and sustainable.
Sometimes our minor's counsel work involves gathering information to assist in my advocacy before the Court in getting to the truth of what is actually occurring in each Parent's household, or concerning a specific event or incident, or series of events or incidents, and to investigate, as part of each child's advocacy, the various elements each child's circumstances.
Sometimes our minor's counsel work involves ascertaining and assessing the child's preferences, such as in cases concerning two very different parenting plans sought by each parents, such has happens when one parent seeks to move away with the child, or is planning on moving away causing a significant change in the existing custody plan.
In short, as minor's counsel, our firm seeks to represent the minor child's best interest, and to advocate for the minor child the best possible outcome considering the circumstances of each child encounters in their parent's households with the overall focus being the best interest of each child.
Privately Retained Minor's Counsel Cases
In order to accept privately retained minor's counsel work, there must be buy-in from both parents and their attorneys to work collaboratively and for a higher purpose to make the process child-focused, and if a child's preference is sought, to accept that preference.
When I am retained privately to obtain evidence from the child or to obtain and evaluate that child's preference, there must be buy-in from all involved that this evidence be obtained in a way that is least traumatizing for the child and does not unnecessarily involve the child in the parental custody dispute, and to honor that stated preference.
When there is a particularly independent child, or a child whose preference is sought, sometimes one parent and their household will not be happy with the desires or preferences of this independent child. I only ask for recognition at the start of the process that both parents, and their households, commit to the understanding that they may not be happy with what their independent child has to say, or what their child's desires or preferences are, but to respect the agreement of the parents to add in the child's voice in the process and to honor that voice when it is expressed, and to not get upset at their child for voicing desires and preferences when different from that parent's desires and preferences. Finally, I ask that both parents and their households be committed to reducing conflict, and putting the focus on the wellbeing of their child.
If I have been appointed on your case,
please complete the following forms.
For each of your children, please complete the Children’s Information Form.
WAIVERS AND OTHER FORMS