Discretionary appointment of GAL
Alabama courts, in practice, regularly appoint a guardian ad litem (GAL) attorney on behalf of children in private custody disputes. However, courts have varied dramatically in the sources they cite in support of their authority to make such appointment; some courts claim the authority derives from Rule 17 of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure, others from the Uniform Guardianship Act (Ala. Code § 26-2a-1 et seq.), and still others from the Juvenile Proceedings code (Ala. Code § 12-15-1 et seq.).
The Alabama Supreme Court heavily criticized these approaches in a strongly worded dissent and ultimately questioned the practice of appointing a GAL in custody matters entirely. See e.g., Ex parte J.G., 281 So.3d 371 (Ala. 2019) (per curiam, writ quashed, no opinion issued where mother appealed contending GAL did not have standing to file a petition to modify custody after the entry of final divorce order) (Bolin, Wise, and Sellers, JJ., dissent) (disagreeing with mother’s argument that GAL lacked standing; asserting that the real issue was the GAL’s lack of authority and adverseness to the proceeding.).
