[FamilyProtection] Martha's Case: Beware Of Court Appointed Attorneys And Weigh Your Options When Using Them!
A message I received from a parent yesterday as a reply to a missed planned video discussion about 15 days ago got me punching my keyboard to write this post. She will be disguised as "Martha" and my helper who directed me to her diguised as "Eunice". Martha is a single mother of a beautiful 7 years old girl residing in one of the states in America. Martha message pasted below(Cleaned Version):
Eunice told me of your research into cases of parents who had passed through the CPS, I don't want to get too emotional that was why I decided to send you this message instead of video chat that Eunice suggested. I don't want to get emotional writing this either as a message, so I would be brief about it all and state to you the most important part of injustice I went through. I hope this helps you well and hopefully stop others from falling into my condition.
My daughter whom I love dearly with all my heart came home from school with bruises on her ankle and a slight cut resembling that inflicted by fingernails. I was shocked seeing this, and she told me one of the kids in school had done it to her. After tending to her bruises, the next morning I took her to school and confronted the principal. She refused to believe me, insisting that the kid did nothing of such to my kid, that my daughter was perfectly fine when she left yesterday. I insisted and I was so furious about what had happened, the kid in question happened to come from a wealthy home and perhaps that contributed to the principal adamant attitude to believing me, I threatened to sue for it.
To cut the story short(I am already getting all emotional), the principal called CPS on me!!!. they insisted that I was the one who abused my own daughter and came to "act up in school"!, I was accused by cps workers to have fingered my kid and bruised her also irrespective of the fact that my daughter was saying otherwise that it was the kid in school who got her injured. CPS charged me for this wrong doing, perhaps this was a plot with the boy's father whom had bruised my daughter.
CPS took my kid for a long time, keeping her up in temporary foster care for a long time. The charges against me gradually began to multiply, and I was charged for having a drinking habit and being drunk despite the fact that I have been off alcohol for more than 5 years now(I fell into my previous drinking habit when I lost my husband, the father of my daughter died). But I had stopped completely!, I didn't admit to it either because I know that will be the end of me seeing my lovely daughter.
I had no money and I couldn't get a good attorney to fight my case, I couldn't get any at all, so the court appointed me a court attorney. My problems were about to get much more complicated because of my attorney. The attorney often never replied my emails, I was pleading for him to seek out enough time for my case but it was not forthcoming. I kept on pestering him until it was about one day to one of the hearing. Thinking it was ideal to tell my attorney everything about my case, during our discussion I admitted to him that I had drinking issues years ago when I lost my husband but I have been sober for years and any other minute information about the bruises and finger marks.
On the hearing day, my court appointed attorney completely defiled my confidential agreement with him, and was indirectly telling the court that I had drinking issues and that I still drink alot "once in a while". This was completely false!, I was already crying and speechless, my attorney had worked against me and even lied about it!.
This message is getting too long, in shorter version, I got my baby back after I ended up selling all my properties I could lay my hands on, my ipad, old computer in the house, my jewelries and every other valuable things my husband got me. Sadly, even my ring!. I told the court previously that I would be changing lawyers and all that. Even that became an hurdle for me, they never wanted to permit it saying I can't change from the court appointed attorney. Well, I got a great attorney eventually who was able to fight my case. He was always present and knew exactly what he needed to do. I myself played my part in getting every information in fighting my case.
My beautiful daughter is at home now since 3 months ago after being taken for more than 157 days from me. I still feel the trauma and the hell they made me pass through. I am presently crying as I type this message to you, It was a painful one for me and my daughter.
I decided to send you this message to help you out on your research as Eunice told me about it that you needed it and I felt that would be a way of getting my story to many families, especially single mums out there.
Please change my name if you want to eventually use this, I don't want them knocking on my doors for any reason. Hope I was of help to you.
Bye.
Inasmuch as we would be made to believe that court appointed attorneys are supposed to be just and confidential, this skips through the cracks!. The worst situation you can find yourself when dealing with CPS is to have a buggy two-sided attorney like Martha initially had. That said, not all of them are like this, some actually care about your case as much as they can and are ever ready to work out your case with all confidentiality and with ethics.
Juvenile delinquent attorneys are always hard to come by, because it is a rare part of the law, but your kid is worth the search and expenses!. Court appointed lawyers are usually the most busiest of them all, they would have little to no time for your case and might likely indirectly work against you, or even directly. Very underpaid and mounted with many cases to even get to create chance for yours. So, consider all this if you ever face CPS, a private attorney who can genuinely put in the time, resources and energy to work out your case is prioritized. Don't go for a quack attorney either, cause you might end up in the same sorry state, never leave your case to an attorney to work alone, be there with him, bring as much documents as possible and work with him every step of the way.
My heart goes to "Martha", may you completely recover from the hell this Child Abuse Service (CAS) made you pass through and may your journey with your lovely daughter be always peaceful as you walk through life.
Rise up for this cause
A foe fought in Unity
Becomes a foe defeated
To be informed is to be forearmed
Keep loving your Kids and fight for their right to be loved by you!
Peace to you all,
@kryptocoin
(MakeBloom)
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We must unite together @familyprotection
Thank-you @kryptocoin for writing another great post with our tag, and helping to spread the word about how to protect our families from the government kidnappers.
We seem to be unable to control everything happening around us but “Family" should be the exception. I am grateful to be here!.
What an aweful story. I am glad to hear her daughter is back with her, but it breaks my heart to hear they were separated for such a long time. ONE minute is too long! This should never happen to anyone! When listening to this story, I come to the conclusion that the court appointed lawyer is working to suit the court, not help a person. I can't believe this man can sleep at night nor face his family. I am so, so sorry this happened to this woman and her child, and I hope their story will wake people up. It is not a singular event, it happens all the time and everywhere! People need to wake up to see that this issue goes much deeper than we want to believe. Thank you for sharing.
You are right, He was surely working in favor of the court. It goes deeper than the light can see, like a cankerworm it is devouring many homes. A new dawn is coming, already breaking. Thanks for your comment @misslasvegas
I know it is @kryptocoin <3
I wonder if the principal even knows the harm he has wrought.
I bet he doesn't. And probably never will. If someone he trusted set down and told him horror story after horror story of Child prostitution Services he would probably shoot himself.
But, right now, he probably feels vindicated and an upstanding citizen.
Further most of the lawyers are in on it. The lawyers play both sides to get the biggest cut of the pie. Justice does not exist in the courtroom, nor does truth.
I am very sorry for people like (Martha)
That is undeniably true, most times they(reporters) think they are upstanding citizens!. well, their myopic awareness is to blame most of the time. And some of them do not know what it means to be parents. They indirectly feed this bad system.
For the lawyers, I must say there are some few great court-appointed attorney, but if I were a parent, I would never want to bet my child safety on that!.
I must admit also that most of them are well experienced in the field of work since they are familiar with the whole process, But that doesn't helps most times since they are have so much caseloads and limited time.
Some would even tell you to plea guilty just to get off quickly. For everyone who might ever get an appointed attorney, I pray they get genuine ones who would be able to fight for them and not secretly for the county. Thank you so much @builderofcastles for your great comment.
I don't even know where to start with how wrong this is, that poor little girl firstly for the bullying at school that the school denied and then on top of that to be punished more by being taken away from her family. I have 3 girls and I just don't ever want to have to imagine anything like this ever happening to them. To the mum, to be accused of abusing your child when you were only trying to protect them, my heart goes out to her.
It's so hard to hear all this stories of parents not being allowed to protect and care for their children, but they need to be told.
WE should all be actively supporting and promoting family/ children rights and protection. We are the ones we have been waiting for and change needs to come from us, we need to create the world our children want to live in. Be active, support @familyprotection and support the families around you.
Thank you so much @trucklife-family, you’ve said it all, we need to preach this gospel of Family Is Everything!. We shouldn’t close our eyes to tyranny. Let’s get to know our rights in fighting for families out there!.
I don't see how anyone could conciser this as useful information. This sound like programming people to think that all you have to do is find the right lawyer and your home free. Never think that there is ever anything you can do because you are not part of the priesthood of the court and the legal system. Very simple things could have been done before it ever got to the point of having a child taken. 1. Did you request a written statement (under penalty of perjury) from the principal stating that she had first hand knowledge of the child condition when she left school. If she give you the statement, then it would time for you to ask some questions. If this kid did this to your child then it is most likely not the first time it has happen. So get full accounting of the child in question history in school 2. Child protective service authority can only come from first hand knowledge so what first hand knowledge do they have to say the you have inflicted this one your child. We are constantly being indoctrination to believe that we are powerless. And this indoctrination is their path to having power over us. American are like the cowardly lion in the wizard of Oz! This upset me because for one if you don't know your rights then you don't have any, no one think about their right till they need to know which is in most cases to late! Also the more people see these kind of things happen to others the more they think that it's suppose to be this way. But that not all it has implications for the world, because it this can be done in the (so-called) land of the free then it can be done anywhere! You have little choice of being a debt slave (if you refuse to think) but that does not mean that you have to be a slave in every matter without question!
QUESTION MORE!
You have spoken well, “Martha” might have not narrated the whole story in entirety via her mail. She might have not handled the situation as best as she could have. Remember, many people like “Martha” are not even aware of their rights, and mostly believe CPS has lots of authority, but that isn’t true, In fact they are powerless! But then they are crafty and act all mighty to scare the heart of the Simple.
There are ways it should have been handled without the child even getting off her home, but ignorance is more of a sickening pill that deludes us of our Rights. We (under the #familyprotection) have been bringing all this to the public, to make parents aware of their rights and cleanse parents from future attack by this set of people. Everyone needs to be aware of their rights first before triumphing over CPS, and that is what @familyprotection has been doing for quite sometime now, you can read some of the posts where issues on rights and what-to-do have been talked about under the tag. To be informed is to be forearmed, Every parent needs to know their rights!!!. And a legal practitioner makes fighting the CPS easier with us also being aware first. Thank you so much @geneticmemory for this sound comment.
Thank you for #familyprotection
And also, due to the problem of innocent parents not been aware of their rights and manner to approach a situation when it occurs, many children have been taken on far less trivial matters than that of “Martha”. CPS are heartless, and would never ever tell you your rights to overcome a particular investigation, they work in the dark and deceitfully make you sign off your rights. “First hand knowledge” only comes to play when you are able to demand for that!. Many families have been turn apart unlawfully by CPS by just “hearsay and rumors” because parents were too passive on their rights. @geneticmemory, you would be moved to tears when you hear some trivial issues caused the removal and termination of parents rights.
The court system seems to work a bit differently in Canada.
I helped a young mother fight to get her baby back from Social Services.
She qualified for what we call Legal Aid. You get to choose your own lawyer as long as they accept Legal Aid.
We had the recommendation of a good lawyer from someone who had used him before to fight Social Services. But we were a bit worried that with his busy practice he might not take this case, since it paid less than his regular clients paid.
Fortunately for us, he agreed to take the case and did a good job.
I do know that you must be careful who you choose though,
because some lawyers are also used to represent the Social Workers,
and if they get a lot of business from the government Child Kidnappers,
then they are not likely to work in your best interest. They should be required to say no to taking you on as a client, due to conflict of interest, BUT they will often say yes, take your case and pretend that they are actually working for you.
Thank-you @kryptocoin for getting the account of this poor mother. I feel so badly for her and hope that nobody else has to ever go through this. She ended up better off than many cases, but it is too bad that she had to sell all her earthly possessions to get her daughter back to her loving home.
I am not familiar with the court system in Canada, but with my little knowledge in the America court system, you do not get to personally choose your appointed attorney(public defenders), this is one of the disadvantage. Parents are stuck with whoever the court appointed them. But because of 6th amendment guarantee on EFFECTIVE assistance to counsel , you may choose to ask the court to replace your appointed attorney in some extreme conditions if you see He is not working to your favor. The court “may” grant your request and appoint another unknown face to you. I guess the Court system in Canada seem to be more free in this selection process “legal aid” that is a good thing. I would have to go learn more on that. Thank you @canadian-coconut for this great comment
You do get to choose. Your choice is to use or not use an attorney. But if you don't know your right then they tell you what to do. To get rid of any attorney all you need to do is to demand that he sign your contract to defend you. Because attorney work for the court there is ALWAYS a conflict of interest ( and no lawyer wants to step into a conflict) . People think the court has the power (this is conventional thinking) the truth is that the people have the power. But because people do not do any research (at any time) they believe what is said by others who also do not know.
Of course, you have the right to use or not to use. You have the right to build and defend your own case in the law court, this is called "Pro Per"(if you have the legal strength and confidence you can). You have the right to get rid of your court appointed attorney and either defend yourself or get another who can. Look closely and you would see we are inferring the same thing.
If you can defend yourself, then very great. But many others don't even know their rights in the first place, it gets worst if they have to stand before the court alone. Something I can assertively say is that he/or she would easily be preyed on by this wicked System. @geneticmemory, I have enjoyed all your comments, thank you so much for the time and strength you put into these replies . Parents don't need to be lawyers to know the law, we must all endeavor to know the laws we live under even as citizens. As your image says "let's cultivate knowledge". Many Thanks @geneticmemory
https://steemit.com/law/@geneticmemory/a-quick-study-of-commercial-law
You may also want to look at seat belts on geneticmemory's bolg. It's a seat belt case but in commercial law all cases are from the same root.
Thanks for giving me this chance to share.
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Very painful Story i feel so badly
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great post