My son, who lives with his maternal grandmother, is a ward of the State of Illinois. I'm a truck driver and entered the legal proceedings late, which are in Cook County at the Junvenile Courthouse and are in a permanancy hearing stage. I was assigned counsel, but went pro se (self-representation) when I found that his level of communication with me about the case was not what I had hoped for. Several calls went unreturned and unanswered.

In any case, since he's in his mid-teens, doing reasonably well, and expecting to attend a particular high school next year, I'm not seeking to have him come live with me. It would be nice, but I'm also not home enough for that to happen. I know I need to produce enough copies for all parties in the case: G.A.L's office, Mother's counsel, State's Attorney, and DCFS. I just want to be able to provide the best defense possible for myself in order to obtain unrestricted and unsupervised visitatoin with my son. I would like to be able to have the freedom to take him on trips or to concerts and such. Thanks in advance for your help.

Worst mistake was not to have an attorney, if the other side does, just about lay over and give up, sorry but they will use motions and get yours thrown out.

This is not small claims court,

First why should you not get set visits time ( it is always restricted to specific days and times)

Why should it not be unsupervised, have you been a threat to the child.

Get your attorney back

I'm not the one at issue in this case; his mother is. I may not be a member of the Illinois Bar Association, but I have enough intelligence to do this. Asking questions on this forum is part of my research. I specifically requested an example of a Motion for Discovery; not a question of my methods and motives.

Besides, why would I want to get an attorney back who was non-communicative in the first place?

First, may I call your attention to the guidelines for using the comments feature found here:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/feedba...ure-24951.html

When offering help here we may not directly answer the question the first time because we need more info. In your initial post you neglected to explain what you are trying to discover. Without that info there was no way to answer. Without knowing what position you are in this case (plaintiff defendant) or a brief history again no way to answer.

So your negative rating of Chuck's answer was inappropriate on several counts.

As to your going pro se (and we know what that means, you probably don't want an answer from someone who doesn't) ,if you are going against another party who is represented by counsel, you start with 2.5 strikes against you. Granted the assigned counsel may not have been helpful, so you try and get another.

Family Courts are usually less formal so motions generally do not have to be exactly formatted. However, its rare that a Family Court assigns counsel, so the Cook Cty court may be more formal.

If you want to explain more about the case, we may be able to help further. But my suggestion is to find another counsel or check out local law schools (of which you should have plenty to choose from). Many of them run clinics for people and can help you prepare documents and maybe even strategy.

Not sure what you mean by unrestricted visitation. Generally you won't get that. Visitation orders are generally according to a set scheduled (every other weekend) specific holidays, etc.). At the very least you will be required to make arrangements for any visit in advance. As to unsupervised, unless you pose a threat to the child why would supervised visits even be an option?

P.S. when posting follow-up questions or info, please use the Answer options at the bottom of the page, rather than the comment feature.

So hire a new one that will be.

They will eat you alive, esp in Illinois, I have had several dealings with children services and the Juv court system there.
And it was the most crooked place I have ever walked into a court room.

Example, I went to Law School, worked years with the Justice Department and the State of GA.

I would not even consider going into Juv Court or Family Court without an attorney ( ever)

In Illinois I would not go for a traffic ticket without one.

Esp if you are not there all the time, they will change court dates just to make it hard on you, if they don't like you.
** and going in without an attorney because remember all the judges and all of the other people will be attorneys who will now feel you disrespected one of their own.

They will often reject motions not in the proper front size that your local court will require.

Next at the hearings, they will present or use motions you don't know or understand. And about 1/2 the time the judge has already made their miind up before they walk into court from the briefs they read, or worst.

I guess who is he going to be living with, if the mother is unfit, will he be put into foster care or move in with another family member ?

Scott,
While your advice is sound, I guess I'm just tired of the slow process that Cook County seems to have. The status hearings are about 6 months apart. As to the unrestricted visitation, there is no restriction other than the visitation must be supervised as DCFS (Dept. of Children & Family Services) sees fit. So far, his maternal grandmother has been the one to supervise all visits. I still don't have the freedom to take him places for some father/son time. This is what I mean by unrestricted. I was merely covering all my bases with the term. I have seen examples given of Motion for Discovery in other cases, but began to wonder how it would differ from my particular situation.

As to what I'm trying to discover, I would like to be able to see what all the files each party has pertaining to the case. I know there's nothing in the case that would reflect poorly upon myself, but in order to build an effective strategy I would like to see what cards everyone has against his mother.

This is actually a somewhat older case, by now. The mother needs psychiatric help and refuses to seek the help she needs. She's also confusing psychiatric consultation with psychological consultations; which she already has had the latter. His grandmother, whom he's lived with all his life (his mother, also) has been named as his foster guardian. The order, as it stands, requires his mother to not reside within the same home as my son and that all visitation, either by me or his mother, be supervised.

I should also note that the house belongs to his maternal grandmother and is the same house his mother was raised in. His mother would still normally live there if it weren't for this case against her.

Again, Please do NOT use the Comments feature for followups. Use the Answer options at the bottom of the page.

What is the reason for supervised visits?

I don't think you can request a blanket discovery. You probably need to be more specific. So either get another attorney or try for a law clinic like I suggested.