Meredith L. Richardson serves as a Guardian ad Litem in the courts of Maine and New Hampshire. In this capacity, she represents the best interests of children in parental rights cases, divorces, child protective cases, guardianship proceedings, and proceedings for termination of parental rights.
Meredith's work as a mediator and facilitator provides a good balance to her work as a guardian ad litem, where she is called upon to make recommendations as to what is in the best interest of children. As a guardian ad litem, she strives to treat each parent with respect. She looks at what the situation is, assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and desires of each parent, and determines what is in the children's best interest in that situation. There is no cookie cutter formula to be applied. Each case is unique and is decided on a case by case basis.
You can feel comfortable that Meredith will make an educated, informed decision in your case and that you will have a clear understanding of how she got to that decision. She is open to questions and challenges from the parents and will discuss the report and recommendations at length with them if they choose to do so.
Meredith has received extensive training as a Guardian ad Litem, in part because she has chosen to practice in Maine and New Hampshire. In each state, she has completed the required week's worth of basic training and regularly surpasses her annual continuing education requirement. She is active on the listserv of the Guardian ad Litem Institute and the New Hampshire Bar Family Law Section, both of which help her to keep up to date with the latest laws, theories, practices, and education available.
If you were to hire Meredith as your guardian ad litem, you could expect her to perform an investigation that included, but was not limited to: talking to each of the parents and reviewing documents describing their view of the situation; meeting the child with each parent (unless specific circumstances dictated otherwise, such as safety concerns); talking with references provided by each parent; reviewing the court file(s); talking with additional references she felt were needed; and reviewing additional documents as needed. She may talk with your counselor, your child's counselor, DHHS, DCYF, a probation officer, school personnel, etc. She may look at relevant criminal records or police reports. You would receive a report from Meredith as ordered by the court, usually within 60 days from the date of her appointment, provided a retainer had been paid or other payment obligations had been kept.
Meredith serves on the Executive Board of the Maine Guardian ad Litem Institute http://www.galconnection.org/.