The Flimsy 'Preponderance of the Evidence' Standard is Bad Enough, But Things are Actually Much Worse. Increasingly, the CPS/juvenile court systems are handing off their fact finding and decision making responsibilities to mediators, evaluators, and even to CASA volunteers, all of whom operate on NO standard of evidence at all.
There's no doubt that the juvenile courts have become increasingly stressed over the last few decades as victims of family violence have emerged to seek help for their plights. But instead of adding resources to properly meet the need, the CPS/juvenile court system, like the family court system, has handed off more and more of its fact finding and decision making responsibilities to a whole phalanx of psychologists, mediators, evaluators, and even to volunteers.
These are court janitors, really, brought aboard to mop up the judicial mess made by women and children who have found a way to make their needs and outrage heard. When a case becomes complicated or contentious, or is just more work than the judge wants to handle, the judge simply turns the case over to one of these evaluators to look into the case and come back to the judge with a set of recommendations. In nearly all cases, juvenile court judges blindly rubber stamp these recommendations with no further ado.
What is absolutely critical to understand is that once handed off to these evaluators, you have been ushered out the court's back door, outside the rule of court law, and completely unprotected by rules of evidence. These evaluators operate under NO standard of evidence. NO rules of admissibility. NO legal protections at all. Hearsay, psychobabble, prejudice, lies, gossip, it all comes in. And it's often all against you because the perpetrators are usually expert manipulators and liars, and, in addition, they have likely already poisoned the social relationships around you. This is why it's the non-offending parent who most needs strict rules of evidence for protection, and is most hurt by their absence.
I still remember the only question the CASA worker had for me when I testified on your behalf... "is Linda on maternity leave right now?" As if that had any bearing at all on whether or not you were both fit and non-abusive parents. And I loved all the stupid comments she made about the baby on her publicly accessed facebook page. Referring to him as her "little guy" as if she had some connection to him other than seeing him once for like 15 minutes in 3 months.
ReplyDeleteAnd I HAVE to add that the CASA representative in your case along with the children's attorney ONLY spoke to DHS and the DA during the whole trial. When a caseworker and I were speaking to each other outside of the courtroom just before starting trial one day, the children's attorney came up on the caseworkers other side and said "oh good, someone I can talk to" and when she saw me, walked away without another word. It was bizarre behavior. And the CASA and attorney's behavior suggested they sided with DHS. It was more than obvious.