Unbiased Appointed Attorney?
Okay - I know I have been posting here a lot. One might think I'm really dumb (I hope not) but I AM very naïve and ignorant about how this system works.
My ex husband "accidentally" filed an ex parte motion to change parenting time. I say "accidentally" because this is how it's been presented by my ex, my children and my ex in-laws. Ex is in drug rehab and while at one of his meetings, he shared a story about an event which took place at my home between me, my children and my present husband. Ex was told by the meeting leader that he had to file an abuse charge.
In brief, my son and I were having an argument and when my son would not stop yelling profanities at me, my husband stepped in and told him to stop. He ignored my husband so my husband laid his hand on my son's shoulder and pushed back. One week later, I'm in court for alleged physical abuse in my home at the hands of my husband. The descriptions in the motion were exaggerated and some were outright lies, claiming my children were frightened to return to my home, for fear of further physical harm. They were and are not. Further since that time, ex has made it clear (under oath) that he falsified statements in the ex parte motion to get relief from the courts.
However, at the time of the ex parte, I took the judge's suggestion to take a one week time out (we have 50/50 parenting time), which gave the children and I a three weeks breather. When the week came for the children to be returned to me, ex had retained an attorney, who sent me a letter, essentially stating that he was by law bound to report child abuse and unless I agreed to their terms (which was to allow the children to stay with their father while we went through mediation and hired an attorney for the children), he would be obligated by law to report the abuse. I already had an attorney retained by this time, but ex did not know. I immediately forwarded the letter to my attorney to respond on my behalf. I agreed to the children's attorney and my attorney filed a status quo motion. The next day, I received a call from my attorney stating he had just received a letter from ex's attorney, along with letters from each of my children, stating that they did not want to be forced back to my home. The letters were first hand-written, then typed. The language read just like it rolled off ex's tongue. I was hurt to read the letters of course, but even more so, envisioned my children sitting down at the table while their father dictated the letters for them to write. I have not had my children back since the ex parte hearing.
The judge provided a list of attorneys and one was selected and agreed upon by both attorneys. The children's attorney met with the children first, then me. At the time I met her, I felt she had made a fairly good assessment of what was going on, which was that the children were upset with me for badmouthing their dad, but also... she had greater concerns about the permissiveness in the father's home. The kids seemed to have free reign and were worried about the possibility of dad relapsing. He had also been unemployed for more than 3.5 years, which concerned the children, as it contributed to their father's depression.
The attorney informed me that she was only serving as the children's mouthpiece and could not make any recommendations to the courts. She did, however, have confidence in her ability to influence the children to make the right choice.
So my question is this: I met with this attorney once and she met with the children on at least three occasions (I'm guessing, based on feedback/conversations I've had with my attorney. I've yet to see a billing statement). If it appears that she has spent significant time with the children's father, his parents and their father's attorney - how can this be considered unbiased? How is this type of advocate supposed to work?
I must emphasize that the children's attorney was not appointed to make an evaluation, investigation or recommendation to the court. My kids are teenagers, not small children so I realize that their "say" goes a long way in the courts but I really feel my kids were caught up in the hype.
This attorney seems to be hell bent to punish me, when she knows very little about me and I'm sure... even less about father. She was angry that my attorney and I would not allow hearsay and asked her to stipulate to the children's wishes before the hearing so they did not have to be present to testify. She refused. I have a lot of evidence that would raise brows, but it has not been presented to the courts. At this point, I believe the only way it can be presented is to custody evaluation. The pits about that is that this particular judge has already said he pays little attention to custody studies because he feels he can do just as good of a job by his assessment in the court room. I feel like I've lost everything, just trying to play by the rules.