‘Just A Number’: Parents Who Face Losing Their Kids Say Court-Appointed Attorneys Don’t Do Enough A Civil Beat review found that parents almost never win on appeal, and that the appellate court finds procedural flaws in half the cases.
Another attorney met his client, Nikki Alpichi, whose four children had been taken into foster custody, 10 minutes before a court hearing. He told her she had only one real option – agree to the state’s jurisdiction over her children, or the state would make it much harder on her. Now, almost a year later, her children are still in foster care and she wishes her lawyer had told her she could have opposed the state’s oversight.
“If I had hired someone willing to fight for me, I think my kids would be home,” Alpichi said.
Still another lawyer told his client he didn’t have an email address or phone number. The mother, Shana Logan, said she found his phone number on a court document anyway but it didn’t much matter – he rarely called back.
