Guardian ad Litem work

When a court questions whether an adult can still manage their own life, that person stands to lose the right to decide where they live, how they spend their money, who is allowed to see them. Sometimes that protection is necessary. Sometimes it isn’t. Either way, someone has to sit with that person, listen past the diagnosis, and tell the court the truth about what they actually need.

As a court-appointed Guardian ad Litem in North Carolina incompetency and guardianship proceedings, that is my role: to represent the person at the center of the case — their voice, their wishes — and to give the court an honest, independent account of what is in their best interest.

Much of this work is invisible. It’s reading a room. Noticing what a client says when they think the interview is over. Catching the gap between what a family claims and what the records show. Telling the difference between someone who can no longer manage their affairs and someone who simply manages them differently than the people around them would prefer. I give the procedure the rigor it demands — the filings, the records, the background checks, the report — and I’ve built my practice so none of that crowds out the part that decides the case: the person, and getting the recommendation right.

These cases move fast, and the consequences last. A careful Guardian ad Litem can be the difference between a protection that fits and one that quietly takes more freedom than it needs to.