In child custody cases, the courts look at the impact of the parents’ conflict on children.

Some of the ways that the judge does this is by using a Guardian Ad Litem (“GAL”). It could include a clinical GAL or a probation officer to do an investigation that looks at the emotional well-being of the child, the child’s exposure to conflict between the parents, if there are allegations of a course of control or emotional abuse, or parental alienation, and if there is trauma-informed parenting capacity.  The parents want to be careful not to escalate litigation in a way that impacts the children.