Court Opinion

ID: 9737195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:18:38.884267+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:57.132197
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE BUCKLEY specially concurring: I concur with the majority in the disposition of this case, but am constrained to add that the trial court, upon remand, in determining the fee to be paid the guardian ad litem, if any, should additionally consider that he has already charged and received a fee of $500 from the wife notwithstanding that the statute provides that the trial court shall set the fee of an appointed guardian ad litem or attorney for the child and determine by whom it shall be paid. The attorney for the child is in an excellent position to ameliorate the views and actions of the litigants and greatly aid the court in this most awesome aspect of domestic relations, but failure to respond to written letters of complaint of his spouse’s treatment of his child whether the allegations were real or imagined and accepting a fee from the mother without a prior court order prior to the custody determination created the appearance of partiality, exacerbated the ill feeling between the litigants and thwarted any possibility of an amicable disposition of the litigation.