Is There a Difference Between a Guardian Ad Litem and a Parenting Coordinator?
Hi, I’m Clint Hastings, I’m a Tulsa child custody attorney here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I focus on father’s rights. Today, I’ve got a question from a viewer that asks, is there a difference between a guardian ad litem and a parenting coordinator? Yes, and I do have other videos on these topics addressing what each one is and their role in the courts and what to do, how to utilize them and how to get them ordered.
Basically, a parenting coordinator will help the parties to communicate, to figure out how to communicate, protocols to put in place of how the communications are going to happen, whether it’s by text, phone, in person, whatnot. The parenting coordinator can address a myriad of issues that might arise, such as how to do the visitation exchanges, where to do them, are the parties going to talk during the visitation exchanges or not, do they need to be recorded, do you need a monitor at the exchanges?
Understanding the Role of a Parenting Coordinator
If you are disagreeing on particular issues, you can set a parenting coordinator meeting to help come to an agreement about those issues, and then the parenting coordinator can make recommendations to the court about all these things and how they, what they may recommend for the court to order to help the parties better parent together. Now, guardian ad litem, totally different.
Guardian ad litem represents the best interest of the children. They’re an advocate for your children. Once they get appointed, they make a report of what is in the best interest of the children and recommendations to the court along those lines, and they interview all the parties and the child and take in information to do that. So totally different roles.
Exploring the Role of a Guardian Ad Litem
The parenting coordinator is just about co-parenting together, basically, and the guardian ad litem is about what is in the best interest of the children and an advocate for the children in that regard. Hope this helps. Let us know if you have other questions and we’ll try to make videos about those. Thanks.
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If you need assistance with family law matters or have questions about the role of a guardian ad litem or parenting coordinator, please contact Tulsa Dads.Law at 918-962-0900 to schedule a low-cost consultation. We are here to help you navigate the legal process.
