You don't give up when it looks hopeless.

Last edited Sun Jul 7, 2024, 06:17 PM - Edit history (1)

ON EDIT: This is to address those who are ready to abandon Joe Biden needlessly. They are afraid of losing the Election. Nothing is hopeless.

Personal Story.

I was legally representing an indigent woman with a colleague pro bono (for free). We inherited the case from our colleague who died of brain cancer.

Her situation was not promising to say the least. She had five children ages 4 to 9. Child Protection removed them and gave them to a foster family.

And the foster family decided they wanted to adopt all of them immediately before we even got to court. And Child Protection thought this case would be beneficial to their interests. First, the caseworker would get $8,000 per child (that's $40,000) if the kids were adopted. Second, Child Protection is perpetually trying to prevent the State from cutting their budget for the next year. This situation would be golden for them and for the State. Saving young children from abuse and neglect from their parents -- and getting them adopted into a stereotypical upper middle class household.

Our client was a victim of domestic violence and abuse. Her husband was such a religious fanatic that he'd make Steve Bannon look like an atheist. His mission was to keep her pregnant and taking care of his children.

And Child Protection did everything to ensure that our client would not be reunited with her children, i.e., removed from foster care and returned to their mother. Our client needed therapy and counseling for domestic abuse and CP didn't even offer her seminars, etc.

WE had to do all the work. We helped her get a divorce, get job training with certification, got her to live with her supportive mother, and hired an expert witness who was the best trained in domestic violence.

This went on for 3-1/2 years. Our client could only see her children for two hours every other week. She was forbidden to bring them candy, cakes, cookies, etc. Obviously there was some alienation that took place over this period of time.

We went to court. And the judge had a hard time deciding whether our client truly abused/neglected the children. But he wanted to play it safe, and recommended termination of parental rights. We were unsettled, but continued by appealing the decision. We lost again.

Finally, the last chance: the guardianship hearing where there was a decent chance that the judge would permanently remove the children from our client, allowing for adoption. And it really didn't look good. The court appointed a psychologist to evaluate whether the children could return to their mother after 3-1/2 years apart. This "doctor" had the children write "Valentine's Day" notes to their mother, which would be given to her, right before her court-appointed evaluation with the children took place. One note stated, "Dear Mom, I demand to be adopted." As you can imagine, the interview went as well as Joe Biden's debate 10 days ago.

I spent one hour trying to calm our client down and another hour to calm myself down.

But my colleague and I hung in there. We wrote briefs to motions. We stayed in the office until 4:00 in the morning, only to return in less than three hours to fax a responding brief that was received in the interval.

We were admittedly rookies, the first time we EVER did a child protection defense case. We did hours of research and poured over four crowded cardboard boxes of evidence. And Child Protection sent its top prosecuting attorney in the state to ensure they would get the children. David v Goliath.

We had no idea how the guardianship judge was going to rule. He had cryptically asked for all children to wait at Child Protection a few blocks away from the courthouse while we waited for his decision.

And he returned the children to our client, their mother.

That was back in 2012. Our client is doing her best to raise the children, the majority now in their adult years.

And my point: no other law firm wanted this case. Even legal defense found it confusing and had poor representation. Every indication showed we were going to lose. The children would be adopted; their birth certificates would be altered to erase the name of their birth mother and replaced with the foster/adoptive parents. But it didn't happen.

You don't give up. Forget how hopeless the outcome will be. Don't give up.