Have you ever had to go to court to testify for a foster child?
This was my first time actually making it to the stand. The other 150 times it was always continued & continued til the child was no long in my home. Thereby causing them not to want to hear anything I had to say. Which in these cases were just fine by me. But I still wasted hours or a half a day hanging out at the court house overhearing conversations best left in private!
So last Friday @ 5:00pm I received a call from the state's atty. asking me what day of my life would I like to waste. So I choose Tuesday. They wanted to make real SURE I made it, so they subpoenaed me.
This was the case for the 6 yr old that left a couple months back. THE most messed up case I have seen to date. And hope never to see another one like it. There is NO reason for a child that young to be in care for 3 yrs. NONE.
I had to be there at 9:00am, they did not call me till 5:00pm! All witnesses had to stay out of the court room & wait to be called in. OHH, the insanity of it all!
When I finally got up there, the first question they asked is, how would he react when told he had a birth parent visit. Typical question, I would think. OHH, but no! The other atty. actually said, if I answered that question, it was HEARSAY??? I could not say/tell anything the boy had said to me. How can I testify when I can't tell you 95% of the interactions that went on in my house? Why did you bother calling me to testify? It lasted a whole 15 minutes, half of which was taken up with telling me to speak UP. I feel like I did absolutely nothing to help this boy. No wonder it's been 3 yrs. Does this huge waste of time & effort really happen in our American judicial system?
May God be with the children waiting in our *foster* system for an adoptive home
Thursday, June 05, 2008
My Day in Court H**L
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6 comments:
At least they CALLED you to testify. I am glad to hear that in some cases they actually do that. My daughter was in care for FOUR years before we found her and fought to adopt her. My son was in care for TWO years, and my up-coming son has been in care for over TWO years, too. All together, they had been in over 20 placements before we got them...as far as I can tell, no foster parent was ever called in to court to discuss their cases, and only marginally consulted to see how they were doing while in care.
this is terrible. it seems to me they take as much time as they have. they only move when the fire is on them..makes me sick.
liz
Three years!! That's crazy! Ugh.
sigh...
Yeah, I've had to testify. I sat out there all day, too...from 8:00 a.m. to almost 3:00 p.m. because I was the next to last witness called. And then I got majorly grilled in cross-examination. Not a fun time.
Three years, sadly, isn't that out of the ordinary... It's a huge travesty of justice, but it happens much, much more often than it's supposed to.
Hugs,
Min
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