The Secret Video Record: Why Your GAL is Making Up the Rules
Case Studies · By Gale McArthur · 2026-03-31 · 5 min read
Gale McArthur recently captured a staggering admission from Matthew Jolly: Washington has no master checklist for GALs. Here's what that means for your case.
In a recorded exchange between Gale McArthur and Matthew Jolly, a quiet truth about the Washington court system was finally spoken aloud: There is no standardized state checklist for GAL home visits.
Most parents assume that when a GAL enters their home, they are following a rigorous, state-approved script. They aren't. As Jolly admitted, these checklists are often pulled from "other agencies" — meaning your private family life is being measured against arbitrary yardsticks that were never designed for your specific legal situation.
The Admission
During the recorded exchange, Jolly confirmed that Washington State does not provide a standardized, state-mandated checklist for home visits. Instead, GALs are left to use arbitrary forms or "borrowed" checklists from outside agencies like CPS or private consulting firms.
This means that the form used to evaluate your home — the document that could influence custody of your children — has no official source, no judicial approval, and no standardized criteria.
The "Borrowed Standards" Problem
When a GAL borrows a checklist from an outside social service agency, they are often applying standards meant for foster care or dependency cases to your private family law matter. These are fundamentally different legal contexts:
- Dependency cases involve allegations of abuse or neglect investigated by the state
- Family law cases involve private disputes between parents over custody arrangements
Applying dependency-level scrutiny to a private family law matter is a procedural overreach that can unfairly bias the investigation against one or both parents.
The "Postal Code Lottery"
Without a state standard, your home investigation is subject to the personal bias and whim of the individual GAL. This creates a "Postal Code Lottery" where your parental rights depend on:
- Which county your case is heard in
- Which GAL is appointed to your case
- Which checklist that GAL happens to use that day
What We're Doing About It
This lack of a "Gold Standard" is exactly why Gale McArthur built this registry. We believe that if the State won't provide the standard, the people must.
We are currently drafting the 2026 Unified GAL Standard to ensure that every home visit is fair, transparent, and legally sound. This standard will:
- Define minimum observation criteria based on RCW 26.12.175
- Require documentation of the checklist source used in every investigation
- Establish transparency requirements so parents can review the evaluation criteria before the visit
What You Can Do Today
- Ask your GAL to produce the source of their home visit checklist before the observation
- Document any refusal to provide this information
- Verify your GAL's registry status on our verified directory
- Report procedural concerns to the court immediately — don't wait for the final report