I have a custody hearing Wednesday where I represent the baby daddy against baby momma. Both have problems in their past and they share a child, where never married and now have gone their separate ways. This is not a problem for me. I do this day in and day out. I am a very aggressive attorney and take no prisoners. I love the battle that is an adversarial hearing. I have made a point of never apologizing for what I do in a courtroom – if I need to apologize then I should not do it.
That will not change but I am dreading Wednesday. I have gotten my hands on the baby momma’s journal. I spent the day reading it. At times I had to put it down and walk away. I have had several conversations with members of my firm about it. For a custody case it contains gold. I will have in her own words and handwriting enough evidence to bury her, to take her baby away from her and maybe even keep her from seeing the child without supervision.
That is the problem. I am certain my client has decided he can do better and has been an ass to her, even abusive to her in the past. He has traded up.
This girl has been given the short end of the stick and I am about to beat her with it. She has had a hard life, been taken advantage by the men in her life including my client. Three children by three men, her career goal now is to be a manager at Bumpers. At Christmas she wrote that she wanted to make sure that this was a wonderful Christmas for the two children she still has custody of since it will be the last one they spend together. The next entry is about hoping she has not scarred her children for life and that they can forget about her. It is clear she was thinking about killing herself.
I want to hug her and tell her the world is not that cold and evil, that things can get better. That even now, no matter how hard things are it can be better.
The only bright spot is that she has managed to hire an attorney that I consider to be one of the better ones around. He will do a good job. I have a call into him to settle this and have hinted at serious issues with her by asking just how stable she is and can she hold up under a serious cross-examination. I hope he takes the hint since in the cases we have had in the past I have never asked that.
What weighs on my mind is the suicide of a client of another attorney I blogged about in the past. I am not sure I could handle it is this girl decides life is not worth living because she lost this hearing.
1 comment:
Your post is testimony to the fact that attorneys do have consciences. Most people do not understand the role of attorneys and what the adversarial system is all about.
I don't envy you in court on Wednesday. This really is a difficult dilemma. I sincerely hope that the opposing counsel reads between the lines and does what he needs to do to look after his client's interests.
The thought of losing one's child is devastating. Depending on the parent's emotional state, his or her own resources, his or her social support network and if that parent has an identity apart from being a parent, losing custody has the potential of taking away all purpose in life.
www.strategicdivorceplanners.com
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