Kimberly Varney Thomas

Update: Kim contacted my husband’s attorney requesting I remove my review. I will not delete my experience. In addition to this my son’s reviews continue to disappear. Kim’s response below is a sad attempt to discredit me. Trying to cover up her inexcusable behavior is deplorable. Kim’s behavior as the GAL for my stepson was extremely unprofessional,and incomplete. In the end she went against my stepson’s wishes, when she was hired to be his voice. At the conclusion of a critical meeting early in our case Kim drank wine with my stepson’s mom and her lawyer. My husband had previously discussed his concerns about his ex girlfriend’s cocaine and alcohol abuse with Kim. He had also spoke to Kim about his ex allowing their son to drink on several occasions. My husband explained that we had to be at a kindergarten meeting for our son after this meeting. Kims response was “I never go to those school meetings without a drink first”. It was a poor joke (assuming it was a joke)it made my husband and I both uncomfortable. It had been a long custody battle at this point.How can someone with such poor judgement be making critical decisions impacting our family? At an earlier meeting there was paperwork that needed to be signed and promptly filed with the courts. Unfortunately, we later learned that Kim had submitted incorrect documents. Kim’s time in our home was always brief. It often felt rushed. Later, Kim shared some concerning details of her own parenting. How she is “good at dropping off but not good at picking up.” How she wanted to fight her kids stepmother over an elf on the shelf. Our case went on for years. She continued to speak unkindly of her own kids and parenting. We began to get desperate for relief from his high conflict ex and court. When we asked for feedback on what we could do to improve the situation with the ex , Kim’s response was “not exist” followed by Kim inappropriately joking about hiring a hitman for his ex. There was an active JFS case involving a gun and a kid living, vacationing and spending extended time in the exes house. Kim dismissed this event and did nothing to investigate or acknowledge my husband’s safety concerns. Kims response to concerns about his exes cocaine abuse was that the courts do not care about recreational drug use like they used to. Dismissing my husbands request to drug test on more than one occasion. Stating “You do not want to rock the boat.” Kim never looked into the live in boyfriend’s child custody. She never explored why he doesn’t see his son. However she dove into intrusive details about my custody arrangement and history. There was never acknowledgment of my husband’s very serious concerns. In our meetings she encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing. Aside from all that had happened It felt like a couple years into this case that Kim finally began to understand the impossible situation we were facing. Kim said that we have a great routine that benefits my stepson in a positive way. In our final meeting Kim said that she would not recommend changing our parenting time. Instead, Kim did the opposite and recommended that my husband get less than the minimum amount of time to the judge. Kim has never spoken to us again. She never completed her report. She never completed a full report at any point in our case over several years. Deadlines continually missed. Paperwork incomplete. All of these things left us with a lack of understanding, or solutions. My husband did not accept her recommendation. Instead, he continued to court for the judge to make that decision. Kim’s poor recommendation has had a negative impact in our 3+ year custody battle.I believe Kims lack of attention to detail, her mistakes along the way, her unprofessional nature and her poor judgment will have consequences for my stepson, and his relationship with my husband. If you are father with a stable home, who refuses to let your high conflict ex run your life or control how you spend your time with your child, then I wouldn’t recommend Kim. I wouldn’t recommend Kim to anyone.

Update: Kim had the audacity to reach out to my attorney to request the removal of my wife’s review. Not because the review was untrue, because it was “bad for business.”

Kim was the GAL for my son. She was his voice. I encouraged him to trust her. I trusted her. She went against his wishes. It has hurt our entire family. Working with Kim was a terrible experience for our family. We opened our home to her. I allowed her to meet my wife and my stepsons. Kim continues to respond on reviews with a copy and paste comment claiming she was not involved with people on the negative reviews. I can share first hand that she was involved with two of the individual she left those responses to. My son is now at his mother's house majority of the time due to Kims poor recommendation. My son is devastated. Our entire family has suffered. We have a safe, stable, and loving home, that feels incomplete without my son. My son has asked to speak to a judge. He has asked us to record his voice. He has asked why Kim was not fired. He even said that Kim was manipulated by his mother and should not be a GAL. He doesn't understand why he trusted her, when she recommended exactly what she told us all would not happen. She recommended what his mom wanted, not what he wanted. Looking back I feel deep regret telling my son, my wife, and my step children to trust her. I would not recommend Kim as a GAL. She did not have my son's best interest when making her recommendation.

Kim was consistently professional, timely, and straightforward in her role as GAL/PC. Communication was always clear, expectations were well-defined, and she handled matters efficiently while remaining respectful to all parties in every interaction. She is calming, organized, and child-focused, and we appreciated her ability to keep discussions productive and grounded. I would recommend her to any family looking for an experienced, balanced professional.