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In Whose Best Interest?

NCJ Number
175803
Journal
Trial Volume: 34 Issue: 6 Dated: June 1998 Pages: 43-47
Author(s)
A M Haralambie
Date Published
1998
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Family law attorneys who represent children in nondelinquency cases face unique advocacy issues, such as what the attorney should do when the client is too young to express his or her wishes.
Abstract
For the past 30 years, children's advocates have debated whether the proper role of attorneys is to represent the child's expressed wishes or to act as a traditional guardian ad litem. There has been a recent move away from a subjective, paternalistic model toward a more traditional, client-directed advocacy model. At the same time, child advocates continue to recognize the special duties attorneys owe to child clients. As a result, these advocates see a need for multidisciplinary consultation with medical, psychological, social work, and educational professionals and a more informed, objective method for determining the legal position of children who cannot or will not provide appropriate direction to their attorneys. Several national groups have promulgated standards for children's attorneys, including the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA standards represent the first comprehensive guidelines on how attorneys are expected to balance ethical responsibilities with the reality of representing a client who may not be fully able to participate in that representation. The complex and sophisticated models available for child representation underscore the need for trained child advocates who are sensitive to the special developmental needs of child clients and who are fully responsive to children's individual needs. The trend is clearly toward greater advocacy for the child's own position. 14 notes