Unbelievable!
Before DH's case was assigned a GAL, I downloaded the list of state certified GAL's. Our GAL was not on the list. So, I figured she was just a new GAL and the state had not updated it's PDF file in a while. Called the GAL board of the state, and what do you know, not only is our GAL NOT certified, she has also had a complaint filed against her from another county. Of course the board cannot do anything about the complaint, because she is not certified and not under their jurisdiction.
My first thought is to the $500 we just sent this woman. Called bank, check had not cleared yet, but did not stop payment, because I wanted to get my facts straight first and not piss off our potential GAL.
So, I call the county that filed the complaint and talked to the clerk. She confirmed that a complaint was filed, but could not discuss because the case was confidential.
So, I call our clerk to find out if the county was in fact required to use certified only GAL's and if there was some type of "grandfathering" rule that had been applied to her. Of course our clerk was in court. By the time I got a hold of her around 3, the check had been cashed : ( The clerk stated that this GAL, as well as several others, are under review, to be held on Dec 15th, as the clerks office had as well become aware that there were certification issues, however the Marital Master had said to go ahead and use her anyway. I gave her the info for the other county clerk for her to call and see if she could get more info than I could. She suggested that since we knew all this information, we should go ahead and file a motion for a new GAL.
So, on the phone with our attorney. He is going to confirm all these facts on Wednesday, when the GAL board opens back up, and then file a motion to assign a new GAL. He is also going to ask that our current GAL be responsible for forwarding the funds to the new GAL. He called the GAL to discuss this with her and she just left us a phone message stating that there must be some confusion because of using her former married name, that she has been certified since 1995, and that she is unaware of any complaints.
She is another BM! Take any shred of factual information and twist it until you can no longer recognize it. First of all, the board has only been around since 2007, so how she could be certified with the board since 1995 is beyond me. Neither of her "names", married or otherwise, are on the list. And she is totally denying the complaint exists.
We are not calling her back until we hear from our attorney on Wednesday to see what he makes of the whole situation.
Of course, we have put ourselves in a precarious position, GOD forbid, the MM says we have to use her and we've started off on a very bad foot. But, I can't imagine with everything we know about her the MM is going to keep her on our case and risk us pursuing this further. This woman needs to be off our case - and I can't believe that we are the ones putting two and two together for everyone. Ughhhhhhh!
November 24, 2008
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5 comments:
Hay caramba! That is awful! You are brave, I probably would've just rode it out because I would have been too afraid that I would end up stuck with her. Is there a rule they have to be certified, why would they even assign someone who is not and of course, you are unlucky enough to get her! Arrghhh!
Yes, in 2007 our state legislature passed a law that all GAL's needed to be certified with the GAL board that they established. This is our first time dealing with a GAL, so I researched the process as much as possible to find out what to expect. If there is one thing we have learned from dealing with BM all these years, you can't leave anything up to chance. I believe that our GAL is just one that "fell through the cracks". In other words, she had met the requirements expected of GALs before 2007, was on the county list, and the county is just now getting around to verifying that everyone has gotten their certification. Somehow they had already been made aware of her lack of certification, hence this "review" meeting on Dec 15th. And I'm sure the MM didn't know that she already had a complaint against her. I don't think it was anything malicious the MM did, but rather he or his clerk was just looking for a GAL that was not overloaded with cases at this time.
We shared your concerns yesterday morning, because we weren't sure about what all the information meant and how it all fit together. Which is why we did not cancel the check in the morning - if our info turned out to be nothing, that really would have pissed the GAL off! Having talked to as many sources of information as possible, though, I am confident we did the right thing, I just wish we had found out everything before the check was cashed.
I'm fairly certain that the MM will not force us to use this GAL, since she is not certified and we know she already has a complaint filed. We can easily argue that our knowledge of this information could lead her to be biased in our case. I'm hoping, though, that the MM will just assign us a new GAL without us having to file anything. We'll see after the lawyer talks to the clerk on Wednesday. Good grief!
Sometimes it feels like one snafu after another? I sure hope they let you switch and start fresh because even if she does get certified on the 15th it sounds like if BM finds out she'll think that this is just who she needs to have on it! That and the GAL knows that you're not stupid and actually checking her out, so she might act differently just knowing that.
Yikes... you should have stopped payment on the first check, notified the GAL that you did so because she is not certified and started over.
Well, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we had just canceled the check without talking to the clerk of our court, we may have found out that there was some type of "grandfather" rule in place that we were unaware of and that we would be stuck with a pissed off GAL. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the clerk was in court herself for most of the day, and by the time I talked to her, the check had cleared about an hour before. It was definitely a no-win situation : (
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