Florida Guardian ad Litem Office- Pinellas County

Description

The Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office is the best way to represent the legal interests of Florida’s most vulnerable children, the abused, abandoned and neglected based on data and evidence. Florida law requires the Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office to represent Florida’s children caught in the complex foster care system every day through no fault of their own. They face a world of temporary living situations and intervening professionals with a high turnover rate. We are the only agency on the child’s case who focuses only on the child and represents the child’s legal interests in court and their social needs in the community.

The Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office uses a multi-disciplinary team approach to represent children using a Guardian ad Litem Attorney, a child welfare professional, and hopefully a trained volunteer or pro bono attorney from the child’s community. The Office’s multi-disciplinary team model has been recognized as best practice in child representation since 1993 and is the recommended practice by many advocacy organizations. The unique perspective and expertise of each multi-disciplinary team member complement the others. All are critical in the representation of Florida’s abused, abandoned, and neglected children.