Author: Robert Latham
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Congratulations to the Miami Human Rights Clinic
Right from the press release: International Commission Finds United States Denied Justice to Domestic Violence Survivor. Also check the ACLU page on the case. Congratulations to my colleague Carrie Bettinger-Lopez and all the students who worked on this case over many, many years. Phenomenal effort by many, on a huge scale.
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FACC Stands Against NACC Certification, Just to Spite GAL Program
The background is this: NACC is looking to set up certification programs for counsel working with children across the country. This includes GALs, AALs, government attorneys, and even parents’ attorneys. The plus sides are obvious: baseline education and training requirements, elevation of the profession to something worthy of requiring special expertise (which it is), and…
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What do GAL Program Attorneys do?
That’s the subject matter of a certain open records request currently pending for the Guardian ad Litem Program. According to my sources, it reads as follows: This is a public records request under chapter 119 being made upon the Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Program for an opportunity to inspect and copy documents containing the following…
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City of Orlando v. Pineiro: What not to Say in Closing Argument
City of Orlando v. Pineiro — So.3d —-, 2011 WL 3359613 Fla.App. 5 Dist.,2011. August 05, 2011 (Approx. 7 pages) My honest thanks to the Fifth DCA for publishing a whole opinion on improper closing argument. My tongue-in-cheek thanks to anonymous counsel for making it possible. Improper arguments covered in the opinion include: golden rule…
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C.L v. DCF: Default 101
C.L. v. Florida Dept. of Children and Families — So.3d —-, 2011 WL 3341490 Fla.App. 1 Dist.,2011. August 04, 2011 (Approx. 1 page) Default 101: You can’t default someone who tells you in advance they can’t be at the hearing for financial reasons. REVERSED.
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News and Notes: Norway, Missouri, Goodbye Subsidized Student Loans
Norway has a Children’s Ombudsman (barneombudet). According to him, he has no power except his voice. He’s been working on helping people talk to children about the recent (and rare) violence in Oslo, and lowering the voting age for local elections to 16. What a cool guy. Missouri has restricted teachers from communicating with former…
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First Class
The students start a week from yesterday, and we’re busily getting ready, sweeping out the dust bunnies and making sure we have sufficient construction paper and scissors. When I was in kindergarten I remember very clearly losing all of my crayons except the red one. I borrowed one kid’s yellow and another kid’s blue to…
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C.G. v. DCF: Judicial Notice Is Ok
C.G. v. Department of Children and Families — So.3d —-, 2011 WL 3250545 Fla.App. 3 Dist.,2011. August 01, 2011. The only thing interesting about this TPR appeal is the discussion on judicial notice. The Mother argued that the trial court erred in judicially noticing the dependency orders because they were entered at less than clear-and-convincing…