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The role of the Guardian ad Litem has changed over the years, making the job of representing clients more difficult while dealing with the ethical issues of serving as a Guardian. Four experienced practitioners put their heads together to design “Advanced Issues for Guardians ad Litem” being held Thursday, March 20 from 1p.m. – 4:45 p.m. to assist practitioners in representing clients. Note the early start time of 1:00 p.m. for the video replay of this seminar.

 

Organizers for the event, Stephanie L. Gibson, Susan M. Kenney-Pfalzer, Clarence E. Mingo, and James J. Pardi, assembled a cast of professionals whose expertise assists any practitioner regardless of their experience level. An in-depth session dealing with substance abuse issues in cases kicks off the session with a discussion of how to determine and what to do if substance abuse is suspected, assessment and outpatient treatment, and obtaining orders for screening, assessments, and treatment options for parents and other parties. This session will be conducted by Ronald L. Pogue of CompDrug and Sue Ann Palumbo and Parilu Ward from Focus Health Care along with Mr. Pardi.

 

Working with mental health professionals as a Guardian ad Litem features psychologist David Lowenstein and Clarence Mingo as they examine a psychologist’s role in a domestic case. Mr. Mingo shares, "The seminar will assist GALs towards a better understanding of the role they play in requesting, arranging, and using mental health evaluations to further the best interest of their wards."

 

The seminar also addresses the Guardian ad Litem home visit. “We will discuss the various opinions that exist among those of us who practice as GALs on the importance of the home visit, as well as the different approaches taken in conducting home visits. Some GALs use social workers to conduct the home visits for them, some GALs are very thorough in their home visits, even looking in the refrigerator and medicine cabinets, and some GALs don't feel that home visits are necessary at all. This is one area in which my colleagues tend to have very strong opinions, and I'm looking forward to discussing the pros and cons of the different approaches," states Sue Kenney-Pfalzer.

 

Those practitioners who serve as Guardians ad Litem and wish to take advantage of advanced training in addition to family and juvenile practitioners will want to attend the seminar for 3.5 hours of CLE credit, including 0.5 substance abuse.

 

Click here to register online, or phone 614/221.4112 for event #3727-2. The cost is $100 prepaid/$115 day of for members, $145 prepaid/$160 day of for non-members and $65 prepaid/$80 day of for paralegals.