MIKAELA’S LAW

Preamble

Mikaela was only 14 years old when she was driven to suicide on November 24, 2018 by lawless court involved professionals who are protected under outdated Missouri law.

Divorce and custody matters are a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States.  Families are ripped apart due to inadequate protection under the law.  Parents are entrapped in a never-ending cycle, losing their life savings and property while children lose their college funds, all to pay court involved guardians ad litem (GAL), therapists, psychologists, and custody evaluators, who use outdated laws to their advantage with no accountability.  In Missouri, court involved professionals, including GALs, therapists, psychologists, and custody evaluators have quasi-judicial immunity which means parents cannot hold them accountable if they wrongfully recommend to a family and/or juvenile court removal of their child from their custody.  Children are often placed with DFS without any investigation and/or with predatory parents, who have the money to drain the good parent of all their wealth by prolonging the court case over many years.  Legitimate cases of child abuse are almost never investigated.  Parents are often threatened with contempt, incarceration, and dismissal of their counter claims if they challenge the conclusions and recommendations made by court involved GALs’, therapists’, psychologists’, and custody evaluators’. 

The most vulnerable, our children and their families in the ‘Show Me State’, deserve much better treatment in Missouri juvenile and family courts.  Outdated laws in Missouri must be changed immediately to protect our children and hold court involved professionals, who are entrusted with best interest of a child and their placement, accountable.  We must:

1.     Eliminate the corrupt bond that exists between the court involved professionals, DFS, juvenile and family court lawyers;

2.     Set stringent deadlines on completion of juvenile and family court cases to prevent multi-year litigation that exploits families emotionally and financially;

3.     Remove the presumption that parents no longer have any rights and standing to proceed when a GAL is appointed in juvenile and family court;

4.     Allow children to be represented by attorneys, who are not GALs and allow families to have a choice in the selection of an attorney for their child in juvenile and family court; and

5.     Eliminate court involved professionals’ immunity and set accountability standards for these professionals in juvenile and family courts.

Mikaela’s law, an ACT CONCERNING GUARDIANS’ AD LITEM AND COURT APPOINTED PROFESSIONALS WHO REPRESENT THE BEST INTERESTS OF MISSOURI CHILDREN IN JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT CASES.

Guardians ad Litem and any court appointed professionals charged with the professional duties to represent the best interests of Missouri children are not immune from any criminal and civil liability if these court appointed professionals' conduct falls below the standard of care established for their respective professions.