The reason is billable hours. The same lawyers who mock divorcing couples for “fighting over the coffee maker” make a living from couples fighting. Ushering a child to safety means an end of revenue. Putting a child at risk or grievously damaging a parent means they’ll be back as soon as they have a penny to their name. The more erratic their behavior, the more excuses to bring in more players - parenting facilitators, psychological assessors, GALs - which means more networking and more career experience and so so so many more billable hours.
And unlike other profitable areas of law, family lawyers usually aren’t working with sophisticated clients who know the space and expect results. They’re working with traumatized people experiencing hellish levels of life upheaval. People who are easy to discredit and acting like imperfect victims. Even if they are caught in unethical maneuvers, their clients are obviously unstable and erratic - who are you going to believe?
Make family law unprofitable- follow Iceland’s model, for example - and watch the children become far less interesting to the entire system.
Or remove judicial immunity for extreme harm. If a child’s life is lost or if a child is SA-ed because of the court’s placement, let the judge stand trial. And let a jury review all of the evidence that a judge *could* had admitted. And decide if a reasonable person would have made the same placement.
A very powerful post
She is an amazing mother, heart-breaking.
The reason is billable hours. The same lawyers who mock divorcing couples for “fighting over the coffee maker” make a living from couples fighting. Ushering a child to safety means an end of revenue. Putting a child at risk or grievously damaging a parent means they’ll be back as soon as they have a penny to their name. The more erratic their behavior, the more excuses to bring in more players - parenting facilitators, psychological assessors, GALs - which means more networking and more career experience and so so so many more billable hours.
And unlike other profitable areas of law, family lawyers usually aren’t working with sophisticated clients who know the space and expect results. They’re working with traumatized people experiencing hellish levels of life upheaval. People who are easy to discredit and acting like imperfect victims. Even if they are caught in unethical maneuvers, their clients are obviously unstable and erratic - who are you going to believe?
Make family law unprofitable- follow Iceland’s model, for example - and watch the children become far less interesting to the entire system.
Or remove judicial immunity for extreme harm. If a child’s life is lost or if a child is SA-ed because of the court’s placement, let the judge stand trial. And let a jury review all of the evidence that a judge *could* had admitted. And decide if a reasonable person would have made the same placement.
Thank you for this article. It is terrifying and heartbreaking.
Absolutely heartbreaking. Thank you for the brave mom writing this beautiful poem.
Thank you for posting this. I feel your pain. 🙏🏻
Thank you Tara, just to note it's not my poetry, but another mother's.