By now, everyone is fully aware of the ongoing debate over guardians ad litem, attorneys for minor children, and the various criticisms of judges and virtually all of the legal professionals involved in contested divorce and family matters involving children. In the legislature, bills have been passed. In the Superior Court Rules Committee, changes to the Practice Book are being drafted. Yet amidst all of this newly minted “procedure,” the essential question to be answered in every contested family matter involving a child remains the same: What is in the best interest of the child?
The essence of this question is not a matter of the constitutional rights of parents. Everyone with any knowledge of the law agrees that every parent enjoys the constitutional right of “family integrity.” But it is exactly because each of the parents has those same rights that the constitution provides absolutely no help in such cases. Unless we want our law to revert to a time when a mother or a father possessed a greater right than the other parent solely because the law once presumed mothers or fathers to be better parents, the constitutional rights of the parents offset each other.
