[IL] Any tips for dealing with a Guardian Ad Litem?

Our GAL was awful. Copies pieces of other reports she had written. It was blatantly obvious that she copied and pasted things into her report making recommendations on things that weren’t even to be evaluated. We had to depose her and she changed her recommendation on a number of things when we called out her inconsistencies. My SS4’s mother filed a modification. She is irate that our lawyer advised us that during our parenting time we have the right to enroll SS in any daycare of our choosing. Mom went ahead and did the same, enrolling him in a Catholic preschool during her time. She did not consult my husband, but hey - that was her time. When we enrolled SS in outlet own daycare, mom went crazy and demanded that he be enrolled in her daycare. The custody order specifically stated that dad was not required to enroll SS in any religious affiliated school or daycare. We said no and offered to fine one that worked for both parents. Mom dug in her heels and complained to the GAL. The GAL made the recommendation that SS should be in one daycare, ok cool, we agree with that. Then GAL overstepped and made the recommendation that my SS go to mom’s Catholic preschool, a direct violation of the custody agreement. She said she made this recommendation because our daycare didn’t return her phone call therefore they were not transparent and she did not feel that it was in SS‘s best interest to change a familiar daycare setting already. Regardless this was against the order and a big no no. Mom acted like she has won litigation and started pressuring SO to pay tuition for this September. We were like no way. We will need a judge to order this first. So they went to their pre-trial hearing in May and the issue did come up. The judge threw out the GAL‘s recommendation and told the parties to find one place that worked for both of them. Which is literally what my husband had been suggesting all along. Mom got pissed and fired her lawyer. She’s now on her third. We deposed GAL and really dig into her report. It turns out that the GAL was truly in the wrong for making such a recommendation. Furthermore, we informed the GAL that mom had moved and (after losing her choice of daycare at the pre-trial) switched her mind and was now demanding that SS be enrolled in her public school district a few towns away. Ours is better and we’ve been advocating that he go to our town school when he’s ready for kindergarten. The GAL then said because dad owns a home and has lived there for two years and Mom has moved three times that my stepson has more stability and community in our town. Which is what we were arguing all along. It wasn’t until our lawyer had to point this out to her and get it on record that we finally made some headway over it.

We were very prepared to compare both school districts. The rankings. The budget allocation for resources. Particularly for anything special education or learning disability resources that might present itself as my stepson gets older. We wanna make sure that he has access to the best education and best resources. My husband and I started doing a lot of research on both public schools even though ours is ranked higher. We found out that her public school system had a drug problem in recent years. That it got so bad that the superintendent had to address it. We were fully prepared to speak to all of these things at our trial later this summer. But now that the GAL has changed her recommendation we’re not sure we even need to go into those details.

/r/Custody Thread