Law guardian

Upon visiting the Legal Aid Society, we met with Emily Kimball who functions in the legal system as a “Law Guardian.” We learned that a law guardian is basically, a lawyer who represents the child in Family Court. They are assigned by Family Court judges and work with the child on that case and any future cases. As such, they may be involved in the child’s life for years.
For some cases, the Legal Aid Society also provides the child with a social worker in order to help address the psychological and educational issues that arise in court proceedings. We spoke a little about the society’s history and how during the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that children have a constitutional right to counsel at government expense.
As the legal representation of the child, the law guardian advocates for the child. Yet, we were curious about what the guardian does when the child’s wishes are incompatible with the guardian’s judgment. This therefore lead to a conversation about how the system determined that for a child under seven, the guardian may substitute the child’s judgement; yet, if the child is over seven, the role of the law guardian is to advocate that child’s wishes. The age of seven was not chosen at random and we are sure studies support it; however, in our opinion, development is by no means that discrete. This is another example of why pediatrics is so challenging: the stages of development add complexity. As such, the guardian when meeting with the child, will counsel them on what’s safe vs. not-safe and help them make thoughtful decisions.