Guardians ad litem and child representation in Kentucky: who they are, what they owe your child, and who pays
If custody is contested in Kentucky, the court can appoint someone to look into your family and report to the judge. This page is what Kentucky’s own statutes and court rules say about who that person is, what duty they owe, and — the part almost nobody asks in time — who pays for them.
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Everything below is traced to Kentucky’s own statute or court rule, quoted where the wording matters. Where we could not verify something from a primary source, the page says so in plain terms rather than filling the space. This is information, not legal advice. Corrections go up at thecusp.app/corrections.
What the role is called here
Names matter more than they look. A guardian ad litem generally argues for what they judge is best for your child and is not your child’s lawyer. An attorney for the child argues for what your child actually wants. Those are opposite duties. The four roles, explained in full.
How an appointment happens
A parent or custodian may move for, or the court may order, one or more of the following, which may be apportioned at the expense of the parents or custodians: … (e) Appointment of a guardian ad litem…
Source: Ky. Family Court Rules of Procedure & Practice (FCRPP) 6(2)(e); KRS 387.305 · source
What duty they owe your child
best interests
the duties of a guardian ad litem shall be to advocate for the client’s best interest in the proceeding through which the guardian ad litem was appointed.
Source: Ky. Family Court Rules of Procedure & Practice (FCRPP) 6(2)(e); KRS 387.305 · source
Who can be appointed
The Kentucky Supreme Court in Morgan v. Getter (2014) confirms ‘the presumption remains… that the guardian ad litem shall be a practicing attorney, CR 4.04(3)’ and that KRS 387.305 requires ‘the guardian ad litem must be a regular, practicing attorney of the court.’
Who pays
which may be apportioned at the expense of the parents or custodians [FCRPP 6(2)]; he is to be allowed a reasonable fee for his services ‘to be paid by the plaintiff and taxed in the costs’ [KRS 387.305(4)]
Source: FCRPP 6(2); KRS 387.305(4) · source
none found — the Kentucky Supreme Court in Morgan v. Getter expressly notes that when Kentucky adopted the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act in 1972, the General Assembly ‘omitted that Act’s section 310,’ which would have provided that if the responsible party is indigent, GAL costs, fees, and disbursements shall be borne by the state; no substitute indigency provision for private-custody GAL fees under KRS Chapter 403 or FCRPP 6 could be located and verified.
We looked for an official Kentucky fee schedule for privately appointed guardians ad litem and custody evaluators, and did not find one. That is true of almost every state — only Minnesota and Massachusetts publish figures, and both are subsidised program rates rather than market ones.
The numbers circulating online come from law-firm marketing pages. We will not repeat those as though they were sourced. Call your county family court clerk and ask what appointees there actually charge. It is local, current, and free.
Custody evaluations
Kentucky governs court-ordered custody evaluations and investigations separately from the appointment of a guardian ad litem. An evaluator is a witness, not an advocate — and their recommendation is a recommendation, not a ruling a judge is bound by.
Source: KRS 403.300; KRS 403.290 · source
Before an evaluation begins, it is worth asking which psychological instruments will be used. The peer-reviewed literature is openly critical of several still in circulation — one has interrater reliability reported as ranging from 50% to 100%. The evidence, in full.
The thing worth knowing about Kentucky
Kentucky’s General Assembly deliberately declined, when adopting the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act in 1972, to enact the Act’s Section 310 (the standard ‘attorney for the child with fee allocation and indigency provision’ clause most UMDA states have); as a result Kentucky’s guardian ad litem role in private custody cases rests not on a Family Code appointment statute but on a 2011 court rule, FCRPP 6, borrowing its ‘must be an attorney’ and duty standard from the older civil-procedure guardian-ad-litem-for-infants statute, KRS 387.305 — a lineage the Kentucky Supreme Court traced at length in Morgan v. Getter, 436 S.W.3d 445 (Ky. 2014).
Other states
Related
- Guardians ad litem, child’s attorneys and custody evaluators — the four roles, the science, and what to ask
- Kentucky child custody — how custody is decided here
- Getting your finances in order — including who pays the lawyers
- Co-parenting — after the order is made