In DRUG REHABILITATION / Tags: addiction, children, could, court, cousin, lost, State, struggling, take /
Question by susan b: My cousin lost her children when she was struggling with Addiction, Could she take state to court?
She lost her children because the social worker said she would never change. they said that she had borderline personality disorder and could never care for childrenand would never change. Well, 18 years later they found out that the problem was two other things. May I add she had 3 more cjildren and the oldest is graduating high school this year I believe. Well, they said she was worthless, but she went back to school, stopped the drugs and ended up going to college herself. I should mention that this was a small town and her kids were in foster care just 6 months. Come to find out the judge in this small town was really good friends with the adoptive parents of my cousins children. Now she is completely alienated from those kids who were fed lies and of course believe them. I have tried to talk her into taking action and she is afraid it would just hurt the other kids too much..What do you guys think? also, I thought kids in foster were given way more time than that?
Best answer:
Answer by Seikilos
To make a determination like this requires an attorney. I would be concerned that the time period may be too long for any legal action.
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I don’t think she can, but the family can. If she took the state to court, then she admits and knowingly knows she was not fit to be a parent. Given the time period, I don’t think the case will be worth looking at.
Your going to have to go to a lawyer with the specifics on that one but its not clear what you are seeking? Revenge, money?
Hullo?! You do realize that suing the state is like suing yourself, right? They get their money from the taxes you pay, and that’s how they’d pay the settlement. Then, next year, they’d raise taxes.
I’m sorry for everything your family has been through (mostly for those poor children, who have done nothing), and you could certainly talk to an attorney, but…
I’m very sorry for your cousin’s situation. Usually it depends on each state how long a child will stay in foster care, but it is the consensus of all states that a child must be placed in a permanent home as soon as possible, but for a mother to lose any parental rights to her children takes a pretty long process. This case was badly mishandled by the CPS and local authorities. Your cousin could sue the state but it will take a very long time before anything could happen. What she could do is try to petition for an appeal of her termination of her parental rights and then petition for visitation.
Every US state has different family codes; some are stricter than others. Consider California: OJ Simpson won his custody battle. California also has the advantage that you can keep going back to the Family Court Division and battle for custody.
I know of at least two cases whereby the drug addict parents received child custody after going through rehabilitation, and in one of those cases the foster parents were the aunt and uncle. In fact, the children which are now grown and married, were in the news because they were children that parents kept in closets (I don’t know from where the children received so much forgiveness power).
Another friend of mine, Ms. S, fought and won her Orange County, California, custody battles, and she did it PRO BONO (acted as her own counsel); and her ex had a very expensive, high-powered attorney.
Your cousin should at least consult a family attorney; he or she should be able to give your cousin a realistic success/fail opinion.
OTBPOC