Garnishment: A legal process that allows part of a person's wages and/or assets to be withheld for payment of a debt. Wage or income garnishment is usually involuntary. (See also direct income withholding, income withholding, wage withholding.)
Genetic testing: A medical test to determine legal fatherhood (or "paternity"). (See also blood test.)
Good cause: A good reason. For example, a party must have good cause (better than not having a car or a baby-sitter) for not coming to a court hearing. "Good cause" exists in an unlawful detainer case when the tenant has broken the lease or otherwise done something that legally justifies ending the lease.
Guarantor: A person who promises to be responsible for the debt of another person if that person fails to pay the debt on time.
Guardian ad litem: A court-appointed adult that represents a minor child or legally incompetent person. (See also ad litem.)
Guardian petitioner: A person who presents a formal, written request to the court asking to be appointed guardian of a child.
Guardianship: A court proceeding in which a judge may give someone who is not the parent custody of a child the power to manage the child's property, or both.
Guardianship of the estate (property guardianship) is when the guardian has legal responsibility for a child's property and money (the child's "estate"). This type of guardian may be the child's parent or any other adult.
Guardianship of the person (custody) is when the guardian has legal custody and responsibility for the minor child's person, not property. Includes duties such as feeding, clothing, educating, keeping safe and medically caring for the minor child.
Guest: A person who does not have the rights of a tenant, such as a person who stays in a transient hotel for fewer than seven days.
Guidelines: In family law, a standard method for figuring out child support payments based on the income of the parent(s) and other factors according to state law. The Federal Family Support Act of 1988 says states must use guidelines to calculate support for each family unless there is a written court finding saying the guidelines would be inappropriate for that case.
Guideline Child Support: The mathematical formula used by a court to calculate how much child support one parent is to pay the other parent.
