Aggregated News
A same-sex married couple who hoped to become parents of a third child with the help of a surrogate mother are facing $400,000 in legal expenses after a guardian ad litem questioned the financial arrangement and a judge refused to approve it.
The legal costs include “an astounding” $100,000 billed by the guardian ad litem, according to a columnist writing for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The couple, Jay Timmons and Rick Olson, are challenging the $100,000 fee.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that surrogacy agreements are enforceable as long as the arrangement is in a child’s best interest, according to the Journal Sentinel article.
But the guardian ad litem, Mark Knutson, concluded that surrogacy issues are better decided by the legislature. And the judge who appointed Knutson, James Troupis of Dane County, refused to approve the surrogacy, saying the arrangement violates human trafficking laws.
The guardian ad litem had hired an associate from his law firm to assist in the case. The associate, Erik Krueger, was a graduate of Liberty University’s law school and the author of...
