No, you are absolutely right. We have spent years acquiring expertise, passed up the opportunity to earn three times as much money in any other area of law you care to choose, regularly work into the night reading graphic details about head injuries and abuse and neglect, and spend 50% of our time telling our feckless clients a few home truths and putting up with tears and swearing and storm outs, all because we don’t give a **** about the children. I’m sorry if I sound a little facetious but really! I can’t THINK of a more stupid job to do if you hated children. If I really hated children I’d go and be a teacher or something.
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I do despair sometimes when a children’s guardian can say such a thing to the lawyers in a case. I understand why these things are said, but still. It’s a little insulting and a little upsetting.
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But there is a serious point here. Simply because counsel acting on instructions of their client, say the mother or father in care proceedings, pursues an appeal on fairness grounds which will cause delay in a case where the Guardian is clear in her own mind what the outcome should be – does not demonstrate the callousness to the best interests of the child that the quote might suggest.
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For what is fairness if it is not something applicable to all parties? If a parent seeks a step to be taken in proceedings to enable them to have a fair trial this may well cause delay but this does not necessarily mean that such a course of action is not child focussed. Delay is better avoided, but an unfair trial is unfair for all concerned. A gap in the evidence that prevents a parent properly pursuing their case for return of their children is a gap in the evidence which has prevented a child from having as good a chance as possible of going home to their family, which increases the risk that they may be avoidably adopted. And a trial which is rushed through to avoid delay at all costs may end up being postponed or appealed and reheard to ensure that it is done thoroughly and fairly – causing unnecessary delay and heartache for all concerned. And then there’s the worst case scenario – a trial that produces the wrong outcome for a child that is not rectified on appeal.
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Lawyers understand this whoever they are acting for and whatever their silent views of the merits of their clients case. What some professionals interpret as not caring is no more than our professional ability to take a step back from making judgments about what is or is not worth delaying matters for, and focussing on preparing the case properly so that the judge who has to make the final decision can make the right decision first time round. It is not easy for professionals of any discipline involved in these cases to maintain a professional distance, and it is particularly difficult for social workers and Guardians who are specifically tasked with making recommendations to the court to feel anything but frustrated waiting for their considered views to be acted upon by the court at trial, but the court framework is overlaid upon the social work role for a reason – to protect families, and to protect children. The lawyers are not working against that aim, they are a vital art of the process of getting to the right outcome.
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Some cases admittedly look so hopeless or pointless or inevitable that everyone concerned feels that they are going through the motions. But in cases like that I remind myself of the cases I have dealt with where I have found myself succeeding on what I have told the client is a completely hopeless case. That’s neither a mark of my brilliant advocacy skills, nor of my poor judgment – it is a demonstration of the importance of the judicial process.
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So to go back to the question – for my part I think about the kids all the time. How could one not? But then I get on with giving sound advice and acting on my instructions, and put my faith in the court to work out the right solution.