MEDIA AVAILABILITY Week of Jan. 24, 2000

OSU LAW PROFESSOR CALLS FOR GUARDIAN AD LITEM FOR  ELIAN GONZALEZ

As politicians make legal arguments over which court should make decisions for Elian Gonzalez, an Ohio State law professor says the Florida courts should appoint an attorney or guardian ad litem to advocate his interests.

Katherine Hunt Federle, associate professor of law and director of the Justice for Children project at The Ohio State University College of Law, says "despite concerns about who actually speaks for Elian, in Florida it appears that the child can speak for himself. While a lawyer's job would be to represent the child's expressed wishes, the guardian ad litem's role would be to talk about the child's best interests."

A guardian ad litem is a person, not necessarily a lawyer, who is appointed by the court to represent and protect the interests of a child.

Federle says the Gonzalez situation is complex and involves a number of different areas of law. "Even though Elian is not a citizen, he should be entitled to some sort of hearing before deportation. Lots of children are in the U.S. illegally, in camps waiting to be deported. Elian's case is useful in that we get to see the process many of these children go through. But lots of children who come in with their parents illegally don't get to stay."

CONTACT: Katherine Hunt Federle, OSU College of Law, 614-292-9177 or Federle.1@osu.edu