Lonely Father
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Florida
Ok, so I had a case with my son where a judge's magistrate placed my son into permanent guardianship. The case in its entirety is an extremely long story, but here's the current dilemma...
I am in circumstances now that are well more than adequate to get back my son. My previous attorney filed a petition to re-open the dependency case, have a home study, as well as assign a guardian ad litem in attempt to reunify my children with me. The magistrate refused to reopen the case, despite my attorney saying there were well more than grounds to do so. My attorney also stated that the issue was the magistrate, not our case.
The magistrate has made multiple mistakes on record. The magistrate allowed DCF to change the goal from reunification to permanent guardianship less than 48 hours prior to the 12-month mark. They also refused to allow me to have an evidentiary hearing, despite all the issues being based purely on hearsay. My attorney filed exceptions at the time and they were granted by a judge, but we waited to follow through on it at the time due to waiting for me to be in ideal circumstances to do so (which I am now).
My attorney was assigned to me by the state, but is no longer assigned since the case is closed. She filed the petition for me in her own free time, as she knew very well that what happened in the case was unjust. However, since the magistrate refused to reopen the case (and I have absolutely no extra money to hire an attorney), I am left not knowing what to do, as she said she doesn't have any additional time to help me further. She did go on to say that I need to get the case away from this magistrate and that once I do, the case could easily be overturned for a multitude of reasons. Being financially tight and without an attorney however, I am left with few options.
My current dilemma is that I need an attorney to be able to fight the case, but need the case reopened to get assigned my previous attorney. Since the magistrate refused to reopen the case, I am not sure what to file at this point? Would it be to file an exception again, or an appeal? I have tried looking around the web to no avail. My goal at this point is to get this in front of another judge and get the case reopened. From there, I should be good. If anyone can tell me the best way to do so, I would greatly appreciate it. I only have a couple more weeks until the 30-day point and have not found any option to do so yet.
I am in circumstances now that are well more than adequate to get back my son. My previous attorney filed a petition to re-open the dependency case, have a home study, as well as assign a guardian ad litem in attempt to reunify my children with me. The magistrate refused to reopen the case, despite my attorney saying there were well more than grounds to do so. My attorney also stated that the issue was the magistrate, not our case.
The magistrate has made multiple mistakes on record. The magistrate allowed DCF to change the goal from reunification to permanent guardianship less than 48 hours prior to the 12-month mark. They also refused to allow me to have an evidentiary hearing, despite all the issues being based purely on hearsay. My attorney filed exceptions at the time and they were granted by a judge, but we waited to follow through on it at the time due to waiting for me to be in ideal circumstances to do so (which I am now).
My attorney was assigned to me by the state, but is no longer assigned since the case is closed. She filed the petition for me in her own free time, as she knew very well that what happened in the case was unjust. However, since the magistrate refused to reopen the case (and I have absolutely no extra money to hire an attorney), I am left not knowing what to do, as she said she doesn't have any additional time to help me further. She did go on to say that I need to get the case away from this magistrate and that once I do, the case could easily be overturned for a multitude of reasons. Being financially tight and without an attorney however, I am left with few options.
My current dilemma is that I need an attorney to be able to fight the case, but need the case reopened to get assigned my previous attorney. Since the magistrate refused to reopen the case, I am not sure what to file at this point? Would it be to file an exception again, or an appeal? I have tried looking around the web to no avail. My goal at this point is to get this in front of another judge and get the case reopened. From there, I should be good. If anyone can tell me the best way to do so, I would greatly appreciate it. I only have a couple more weeks until the 30-day point and have not found any option to do so yet.
