Today I spent most of the day in court, and there was one trial that made me really upset. It was a case in which the children had been neglected by their mother and they were now in foster care. The foster care parents wanted to adopt the children but the maternal grandmother was also fighting for the children. The maternal grandmother had previously had custody of the children but they were taken away from her because she was unable to care for them. The grandmother has done everything that the court has told her to do including therapy and parenting classes but she is still unable to get custody of the children because she has been diagnosed with a mental illness. It was so sad for me to see the grandmother testifying on the stand about how much she loves these children and about how she has done everything to get them back. Although it was clear that she loved the children the court was unable to award her custody of them because they did not think she is capable of caring for the children who also have special needs of their own.

While most internships take on the tedium of those tasks better left to those volunteering their time to the organization (i.e. faxing, making copies, securing coffee for supervisors), my first week at the Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Division has been an engagement in legal practice. I could not believe, even as I spoke, that a room full of attorneys, practicing professionals, considered my opinion. And such has been my experience thus far. I think that this is something that I really like about working in a small office. Although it seems like a very long way to travel to come all the way to Staten Island, it seems like the journey might be worth it because I find myself getting more personal attention than I might get in a larger office. I feel as though the work I am doing is actually making a difference, not only in the office, but in the lives of the clients that we represent. For example, the other day I was able to set up free SAT classes for a very dedicated young man who has just come out of a group home. He really wants to get on the right track and is determined to go to college. Since no one else in the office would have time to find him a free SAT class and fill out all of the forms for him, I took it upon myself, so he will be starting the classes in the Fall. Everyone that I am working with in the office has been extremely gracious with his or her time, and all of them say, “please” and “thank you” before and after assigning me a project. I am really happy with my placement at the Legal Aid Society and even though I did not want to be placed in Staten Island so far away it has really worked out for me.

I have been working at the Legal Aid Society now for a week, and now I am doing less observing and they are giving me more things to do on my own. The Administration for Children’s Services is the one who file cases against the parents in a abuse/neglect case. If the Administration for Children’s Services hears about or has evidence that a child has been neglected or abused then they will file a case, and then Legal Aid is informed and Legal Aid serves to represent the children. In most other boroughs, Legal Aid and the Administration for Children’s Services do not work closely with each other, but in Staten Island they do. This may be because Staten Island is a lot smaller and also because most of the time they are on the same side. For example, neglect cases are filed in order to protect the children so most of the time Legal Aid and the Administration for Children’s Services agree about what should be done for the child. As an undergraduate intern, I am not allowed to interview the clients or any witnesses but I am allowed to interview the Administration for Children’s Services case workers. After sitting in on a couple of interviews, yesterday I was allowed to do the interviews on my own, which was exciting.

Hi my name is Vanessa Rutman and this summer I will be working at the Legal Aid Society. Within the Legal Aid Society I will be working in the Juvenile Rights Practice that represents ninety percent of children who appear before family court in New York City. The Legal Aid Society has five offices within New York City and I will be working in the office that is located in Staten Island. The Staten Island office consists of four attorneys, one social worker and one paralegal who I will be working closely with. The Juvenile Rights Practice deals with two different types of cases which are abuse/neglect cases as well as juvenile delinquency cases. In both types of cases the lawyers at the Legal Aid are court appointed and serve to represent the children and their best interests.
I spent my first day at Legal Aid with the supervising attorney and it was a very interesting and almost discouraging experience. The first thing we did was go down to Family Court in Staten Island which is located just a few blocks away from the Legal Aid office. There are two Family Court judges in Staten Island but one of them is out of town right now so one judge is seeing all of the cases which made court kind of hectic. When I got to court I was very surprised at how informal court was compared to how I had imagined it. People are constantly coming in an out of the courtroom, even in the middle of hearings and sometimes the lawyers don’t even stand to address the judge. Most of the cases I saw that day were abuse/neglect cases where the children had already been placed in foster care. The day started off on a positive note when I witnessed a case in which the mother had just completed her drug treatment program. The judge congratulated her and you could see how proud she was. I was trying to hold back tears as the woman started to cry, probably tears of happiness because this means she will soon be able to get her children back. Although as the day went on, I quickly learned that not of the cases end this way. My day did not end on such a positive note because the last case I saw that day resulted in the judge getting very angry. The judge was frustrated and felt that the caseworker had not done enough to protect the child when the warning signs were very clear. The caseworker seemed unprepared to testify and did not have results for most of the tests that the judge was requesting. I felt really bad for the her when she was on the stand, and her lack of knowledge about the case could be a result of how overworked the caseworkers and social workers are. At the Legal Aid Society there is usually one social worker for every five attorneys, and to me, that does not seem like enough. The children that the Legal Aid Society represents need so much more than just legal representation and that seems to be the most frustrating part of my job.