Termination of Parental Rights and Absentee Clients

I sat through a whole day of termination of parental rights trial yesterday. My client is the father of one of the kids and he was in federal prison for most of the child in need of assistance action. I finally met him a couple weeks ago when he showed up for an in-court review. This was after the termination petition had been filed.

He thought he might try to fight the termination at that time, but very quickly dropped off the face of the earth after that day. Actually, I guess his parole was revoked and he’s heading back to prison, but I never heard from him after that review in February.

So, I was stuck in this trial. I asked no questions of any witness, made a short professional statement concerning my understanding of my client’s situation and otherwise sat. Not really a fun time in the basement of the Linn County Courthouse, but, hey. The State will pay me for it.

The Holidays

There’s nothing like getting someone out of jail for the holidays. It makes him happy, makes his wife happy, makes his kids happy. And that means they come back again. Happy Holidays everyone!

Moral Client

I have a client with a tremendous moral streak. She doesn’t understand why people do things that they do and can’t get past it. It’s almost to the point where she is being unreasonable, at the expense of her children, because she can’t see the forest for the trees. I can’t say that I disagree with her opinions, but that’s not really the issue, is it? She has a right to think what she wants, but why not do what seems to be best for everyone, including her offspring?

Clients are fun.

Probate Claims Update

I posted earlier this month about an issue that I ran into concerning a surviving spouse’s ability to recover the full outstanding amount of joint debts from the decedent spouse’s estate. I hadn’t done the required reading when I posted that, but I have now.

As I suspected, the caselaw is pretty clear that the estate is liable for contribution, but none of the cases the attorney for the surviving spouse is banking on goes beyond 50%.

Now, the real question is whether it’s worth it in my case to fight about. And if it’s not, can I convince my client of that fact?

Juvenile Court Surprise

I was meeting with a client today befre a hearing in juvenile court. He found out a few months ago that he has a daughter and that his daughter is the subject of a CINA action. The mother, after being compliant with the Department for some time, has now decided that she didn’t want anyone telling her who she could or could not hang out with. Therefore, she’s decided to cooperate with a termination of her parental rights.

My client has not had any visits with his daughter. By the time the Department contacted him about setting up visits, the mother had started talking about termination. He decided not to start visits because he didn’t want to get attached to the child. He also said that he would give up his parental rights so the child could have a good home.

As I sat there with him in the courtroom, with the child playing ten feet away, I could tell that he wanted to be able to have some time to get to know her…to get attached. But he chose not to. He knew tht he can’t give her the home that the people who want to adopt her can.

Maybe his motives aren’t completely altruistic. By giving up his rights he doesn’t pay child support or deal with the terrible twos (the child is right around two years old). But he also knows that he may never see the child again. The little blonde girl in the red dress with the black shoes. He’s giving up what he could have so she can have more.

Not something I’m used to seeing in Juvenile Court.

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s turkey time and I’m making a list of some of the things for which I’m thankful. I’m thankful to have a job working for good, well-respected attorneys. I’m thankful that I’m a licensed, practicing attorney.

But, professionally, most of all, I’m thankful that there are all of those people out there who break laws and get caught, have issues taking care of their children and have numerous violations of zoning codes, so I can be paid by the Public Defender’s Office to represent them. I’m also thankful for all of those people who want to plan for their and their children’s futures, get married or unmarried, sell or buy a home or start a business, so they can pay me to create documents for them.

Finally, I’m thankful to be working in a place where Due Process and Equal Protection of the laws are not only required, but routinely recognized by an independent court system. Whether we truly believe we get justice from our legal system, it certainly something to behold; and I think it’s something to be proud of.

 Happy Thanksgiving

City Meetings

For those people who represent cities, or have a reason to go to City meetings occasionally, there is a lot of time spent sitting and waiting for your issue. For instance, I represent a City and was at a meeting tonight. It started at 7:30 pm and ended around 11:15 pm. They paid me to be there for the whole thing and I spoke once.

I can’t say that I mind the billable hours, but it seems like a lot of time for very little input. I think my City, and a lot of others, prefers to have me there in case an unexpected issue comes up, or in case a discussion goes to a place where legal advice might be appropriate. But, in those instances, I would most often tell them theat I need to research the issue before I can give them an answer.

So, it seems that, a lot of the time, I could give my input in written form and be available by telephone if they have questions. I suppose it’s a decision for the Cities. I wouldn’t practice municipal law if I wasn’t willing to go to the meetings, but I feel somewhat unnecessary at a lot of meetings.

I might also prefer an earlier starting time.

Clients

One thing I have never understood is how people can be so dismissive of appointments that a failure to attend could lead to their arrest. This, I think, is a problem for all criminal defense attorneys. When a judge says you need to do this or you will be put in jail, it seems like it might be a good idea to do it.

Granted, I’ve never had to spend time in jail (except to visit some of those who fail to obey), so maybe it’s nicer than I imagine it. I’ve never heard anyone say they want to go to jail, though. It just doesn’t happen.

In a similar vein, how can people expect to get good representation from an attorney when they don’t show up for their appointments. Some of the responsibility for making them aware of the importance of those meetings is on me, I know. But I just don’t get the guy who fails to show up for a meeting with me, fails to show up for a pretrial conference, fails to meet the conditions of his pretrial release, then calls me demanding to know why there might be a warrant out for his arrest and, finally, fails to show for the meeting I set up with him during that phone call.

I guess we’re all made differently.