I can tell you as a young Connecticut Family Law Attorney with a few years of experience in Connecticut Family Law and more years as an attorney in Connecticut, that I went to the GAL/AMC training*.
At the end of the classes which were once a week for over a month, then a month Break and over a month more of classes totaling 30 Course Hours, Judge Munro gave us a closing speech. She told us that if we were not already a well established Family Law Attorney WE WOULD NEVER BE SELECTED TO WORK AS A GAL/AMC. I was thinking to myself WELL WHY DONT YOU FIX THAT! Unfortunately anytime one of us young attorneys complains about the system, we are dismissed as not knowing what we are talking about.
Even though the young family lawyers in Connecticut and the people of Connecticut are saying the exact same thing!
Even though the young family lawyers in Connecticut do the bulk of the pro-bono work!
I have yet to work on a GAL/AMC case, the certificate sits up on my wall.
We have to get re-certified every year and it is a time consuming program. Therefore all of us that do not get any work as a GAL/AMC will never get the experience and eventually it will be too much of a waste of time and money to get re-certified.
Just like in family law itself the established attorneys do everything in their power to keep young attorneys out. Unless you are one of the few young attorneys that get one of the few associate jobs eventually you will end up giving up and moving to another area of law or another state. Worse yet the top recruits who are at the top of their class from the top law schools may do family law at their first job but they can and will move to a more lucrative field of law.
This means that although today 70% of family law litigants are unrepresented this number will increase well up to 90% in the future. [I believe that we are at 85% at this time!]
This means that the rates for family lawyers are artificially inflated. The best in the business who go way above and beyond in representing you get $ 450-$ 500 and charge for literally everything and charge a 15 minute minimum. Also some of the worst family lawyers rates are $ 450-$500 and it is extremely difficult for a layperson to tell the difference.
Then there are hundreds of young hard working family law attorneys like myself who do not have the money or networking to get the clients. The established lawyers warn against us for their own financial gain and eventually drive us out of the business.
The fact is that 70 GAL/AMC's get most of the work in Connecticut out of the over 1,000 that are certified. The system benefits 70 well established family law attorneys at the expense of almost 1,000 other attorneys and millions of tax payers who use or are forced to use the system.
The GAL/AMC sytem is so corrupt that I cannot even get a simple GAL/AMC case to work on when I offer to do it pro-bono. Competition in the family law field has become non-existent at the expense of the people of Connecticut.
Unfortunately every time the State or a politician comes up with an idea to pay young lawyers a small fee to help out pro se parties or even for the state to connect young lawyers and pro se parties, it is always shot down.
Why?
Because the state calls one of the Attorneys who literally wrote the book on family law in Connecticut. He tells them that it is a bad idea with no explanation. They accept his judgment and kill the bill no questions asked.
He says that it is a bad idea because competition is against his financial interests and therefore the bill is against his financial interest. No argument is solicited in favor of the bill and the millions that could and would benefit from it.
Nothing changes and nothing will change until the people unify and come up with a realistic platform and let the politicians know that if there is not change they will be out of office.
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*Identifying information has been removed to protect the author of this posting from any retaliation.
well said and thank you for writing that. By chance 5 months ago I met a young attorney who was out having dinner with his girlfriend. I had a suit on as I had just come from a Task force hearing. He approached me and asked if I was an attorney as he recognized me from Family Court. I told him no and that I was just one of many victims of family court prolonged post judgment battle. I explained that I had just come from 1 of the task force hearings. He thanked me for pushing for reform and said he could only imagine the horror I was subjected to. He complained that he had a friend who is a gal and could not get any work because of the powerful clique. He gave me his contact info and offered to testify on Jan. 9. But he didnt. Why would he? The CT bar sent an email out telling all lawyers that they do not need to cooperate with Task Force members Rep. Gonzalez or Rep. Vargas (translation:do not even think about it). Well lets hope those days will soon come to an end.
ReplyDeleteClearly, the author of this is not an attorney, as this is so poorly written. And every attorney knows that they have literally dozens of pro bono opportunities (go to ctlawhelp.org and look for the listings).
ReplyDeleteIf this is an actual attorney with a third-tier law school JD, you really need to take some writing classes. It could explain why you're not being hired.
Again, as I have mentioned before, the kinds of people who oppose reform, tend to be verbally abusive. If they have a solid position, there would be no reason for that.
DeleteI will refrain from editing Ms/r Anonymous' comment. There are many employed attorneys who do not possess solid writing skills.
DeleteCorrection: The GAL/AMC course requires attorney’s to be re-certified every other year the last time I checked. I went ion 2012 therefore I will have to do it again in 2014. I am a family law attorney.
ReplyDelete1. What I have written above and in this post is only my opinion but it is all the truth as I know it.
2. I wrote the post above from my heart, it is not a legal document.
3. I wrote it from my heart because I was very happy to find that there are people out there who want to change the system for the better. I know that there must be many young family law attorneys that must feel the same. I do know another young family law attorney who is a great guardian ad litem and I recommend him/her to be Guardian ad Litem when I can and would do the same for other young family law attorneys that I get to know in the future when I am the Attorney for the Plaintiff or Defendant.
4. I have plenty of cases. I just have never been able to get a GAL/AMC case.
5. I am not perfect but I do my best and I am always eager to learn and improve.
6. I prefer ADR but I am ready to litigate if I must. I also have colleague who is a litigation expert including litigation in Federal Court.
7. I recognize that as a family law attorney that I not only have a duty to represent my client vigorously but that I also have a duty to the best interests of the children.
8. I have read the complaints about the GAL/AMC system by people who have been through the system as parties and I have experienced some things first hand from an Attorney’s perspective.
9. Every family law attorney should be open-minded to reading the thoughts of those who have been through it from a client’s perspective or a pro-se party’s perspective. Each individual post may not be 100% accurate but when you combine them all, you start to notice trends. Everyone is complaining about one certain thing. These things may be true. It is worth listening and educating ourselves.
10. Helping a party that has the law and the facts on their side but cannot do anything with the law and the facts, because they do not understand the system and cannot afford an attorney, is the best feeling. It is the feeling of justice.
ReplyDelete11. I actually win much more often than I lose, because unlike some other Attorneys, if a Potential New Client comes my way and they have no case and they cannot win, I tell them the truth. If it would be a waste of time and money to hire me or any other family law Attorney, instead of just taking their money, doing a competent job and then losing, which is inevitable when the facts and the law are completely against a client, I tell them the truth. Even if the truth means that I will lose business. Also many of the well established attorneys that I go against half ass the case because it is a small case and the the least important case to them.
In response to anonymous:
1. The families and children that I help do not care where I went to law school, they only care that I helped them and I have ended up becoming good friends with their families because they know that I care and I’m honest and I do everything in my power to help them. Many times I will say to a client who is giving me a payment ,“Are you sure this amount of money will not put you in a bad position financially this week.”
3. I can understand disagreeing but when the persons of another point of view seek to stifle the discussion, instead of having intelligent discourse, it is very sad, especially when it is about issues that effect our children.
4. I tell the small minority of family lawyers that try to belittle me that Family Court is a court of equity and if my client has the law and the facts in their favor they will win. The opposing party could have the best and most experienced attorney in the country, it does not matter.
5. I have done plenty of pro-bono through Connecticut legal services and on my own. I have done everything from family law to helping day laborers recover wages from unscrupulous bosses and businesses. Half of my case load is pro-bono work
ReplyDeleteI am talking specifically about being appointed as a GAL/AMC in a case. The attorneys recommend GAL/AMC's and then the Judge decides to assign one. I have also seen Judges ask a well established attorney who was arguing that day for a client, to take a GAL/AMC position at the State rate. I wanted to raise my hand and say I'll do it. At this point it is next to impossible to get on the list for state rate GAL's/AMC's cases paid for by the state.
6. When I was taking the Thunderdome family law classes a couple of years ago, which then lead to young attorneys taking on pro-bono family law cases, there were two judges that spoke. Both were from the Complex docket. One of those Judges did say that if he saw a young lawyer doing alot of pro-bono cases in his court that he would make a real effort to give them a state rate GAL/AMC case if at all possible. Again though, you have to be on the list, unless you are talking about working at the state rate for parties that do not qualify for a GAL/AMC paid for by the State. When it comes to parties whose income is a bit above what it needs to be to get the state to pay for the GAL, I do wonder what would happen if the parties both recommended the same GAL/AMC for their case, what the court would do?
6. I remember that a while ago there was a story in the news about the plight of middle class families in family law cases that do not qualify for pro bono work from Connecticut legal Services for example, but do not have enough money to pay for a family law attorney that charges $ 450 an hour or even $ 350 or $ 250 for that matter. I remember that a State program was proposed. Something to connect young lawyers with clients in that income range. A problem for young lawyers is that they do not have the money to advertise. Many times they do not even have the extra money to network. Just going to the Family law Section meeting is $ 40 for food, plus whatever you drink, plus gas etc. I thought that a program as was proposed would be great, but then I never heard of it mentioned again.
7. When I was doing pro-bono for Connecticut Legal Services I believe that I was told that only 30% or maybe 1/3 of parties that apply for a pro-bono attorney are able to be matched up with one. That was a couple of years ago.
8. Ctlawhelp.org makes no reference to volunteering as a guardian ad litem or working as a GAL. I am young as far as my career in Connecticut family law but i am not young in age. I have lived a very interesting life. I guess that I do not think like the typical "Attorney", but maybe that is a good thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://probono.ctlawhelp.org/ This is the pro bono link.
ReplyDelete