Contacting the judge

If you receive notification of court date, it should be there. I get this everytime there is a hearing. If not, you may be able to call the courthouse. I don't beleive that is private information.

There are only 2 family court judges in our county, so it's not really an issue :woohoo: One is definitely better than the other, and thankfully we have the "good" one.

You had "contacting the judge" in your thread title, so I just wanted to warn you about something. If you are not a formal party to the case, you CANNOT contact the judge about it. That's called "ex parte" communication, and it's not permitted. The judge will not read any letters you send, or meet with you, or take a telephone call from you. If he or she did, the case could be thrown out on appeal.If you are a formal party to the case ("intervenor," it's called in some states), you may communicate with the judge. But you have to ensure that all the other parties to the case get a copy of the communication. So anything you submit must be copied to the birthparents' attorneys, the child's GAL, and DSS's attorney.The judge will not meet with you one-on-one.If you have concerns and you're not a party, you might want to think about filing for intervenor status, so that you can get your concerns on the record.Good luck!

Our magistrate's name is on our placement paperwork. It's also on the paperwork that I have to show people to get services for our FD. But as PP said, unless you have "standing" in court contacting the judge is a HUGE no no.

Thanks SO much! I had a letter typed up and ready to go to the judge after I was able to get the name (NOT from DHR) BTW, I wanted to get her to appoint a child advocate for the case. Now I realize other calls I have been making have made a far bigger splash than I could ever have thought. I've made a few enemies standing up for my kids against some CWs, and sending a judge a letter which would have been a BIG mistake would have been a very bad thing to do!

Yep - going to the judge directly definitely against protocol for things like a CASA assignment. Glad someone was able to help direct you In our case, there never was "A" judge. the case would get assigned to whatever judge was free for each hearing. In fact, our tpr and finalization judges (2 different ones) were assigned on court day The only legal constants were the dcyf lawyer and J's mom's court appointed lawyer (oh, and her CASA is a lawyer)

The thing was, I wanted to contact the judge because I had already talked to a CASA DIRECTOR, and she told me the way to get one appointed was to get the GAL to request it from the judge or I could request it. I'm EXTREMELY grateful I didn't do it!!

gotta love the bureaucrats. too many think in terms of the perspective from their little team. It amazed me how badly they work together! if it hadn't been for a.com, i'd have made many more bungles that already did

Glad we could help you!If you want to be able to make requests like this to the judge, my suggestion is to file to become party to the case. You can file for intervenor or de facto parent status yourself---it's called filing pro se, and it's not very hard. Let me know if you want help. I'm not an attorney, but this hardly requires legal expertise!