Guardian ad litem

Ad litem is Latin for for the lawsuit. Unlike a regular guardian, who may manage a child's property for years, a guardian ad litem acts only in a single case.

Older court files show them in suits to divide land or settle estates where some heirs were children. In an 1828 partition suit in Warren County, Ohio, the court named separate guardians ad litem for different groups of minor heirs. Such petitions list every heir, so they can name all the children of a dead landowner.