Court.

First, I love Zoom Court. Macomb County and Wayne County are still doing juvenile court via Zoom. If you gotta appear, Zoom is for sure the way to go. In person court is a crap shoot on time, which in turn makes for a potentially unending parking meter bill. I’ve also been to so many that end up with hours of sitting, only to be delayed for whatever reason. Zoom seems so much more efficient and oddly enough, typically runs pretty true to time. I’m not sure why that is, but I’ll take it. 

So here I am, in Florida, and participating in a Macomb County Juvenile Court case. The last time I did this out of state was in Hawaii. The time zone difference made that rather unpleasant and at the end of the day, it was rescheduled. In my experience, the Juvenile Court system moves at a snails pace. I often struggle with the process and how it seems to often conflict with best interests of the youth is it supposed to protect. 

Daytime Emmy Nominee has been with us for what will be two years on August 1st. Every youth in care is assigned a LGAL. (Lawyer Guardian ad Litem). That LGAL is the lawyer assigned to the child and is there to represent the best interests of the child.  The LGAL in this case has NEVER met Daytime Emmy Nominee. I can also tell you that he needs to brush up on his trauma training, if he ever even had an initial round of trainings.  Each time the magistrate asks this particular LGAL his best interests opinion, the guy spouts off some generalized statement that is so stereotypical, it’s offensive. The guy spends more time in team meetings predicting the future for Daytime Emmy Nominee, (because he knows girls “like this”), than actually providing any real solutions, or at least brainstorming them.  If you aren’t going to be a part of the solution, just shut up.  I have a million other things to do that would potentially actually make some progress. I wish I could tell you that this dude is a one off.  He isn’t. At all. So if you are an attorney and you feel called to help kids, I know many that need you.

Court went long today.  It lasted all of 18 minutes.  In that 18 minutes they make all sorts of life altering decisions, sign off and move on.  Foster parents do not have to attend.  I always do, because, call me crazy, I feel like someone there should actually KNOW the child.  A caseworker sees them once a month, and they aren’t really in the thick of it. Most of the time I find they aren’t really a trusted person because they represent all that is bad to these kids.  So, I can say with certainty they don’t really know the kids they are representing.  Even if caseworkers wanted to get to know them better, they wouldn’t be able to.  All the caseworkers I know of are drowning in work and kids.  We already know the LGAL doesn’t know what’s going on.  The magistrate asks the same questions each time, all of which are basic facts about the child.  I don’t expect them to remember, but could we at least take a hot five minutes before court to hit the highlights of the case?  One in particular asks each time where a parent is.  Said parent has been deceased for most of the kids lifetime.  Things like that I think everyone participating should know, or at least fake it.  Lots of sad and offensive to go around I guess.

In other news, today is the last full day of Florida and… the weather that goes with it.  (Although today is actually an unpleasant level of hot.)  I have adequately sunburned myself, earned a watch tan and have the sandal strap tan lines to prove I was here.  I have also gotten enough steps in over the last week that I feel like I owe myself a vacation from the vacation.  Meanwhile, poor Hubby is probably beyond ready to be off duty.  I wonder how many times he has felt the need to lock himself in the bathroom this past week.