Features
Dec. 1, 2013
The Children Left Behind
California's dependency courts, where cases of child abuse and neglect are heard behind closed doors, have suffered disproportionately from funding cutbacks. Somehow, the lawyers who work in the system stick with it.
Located miles away from downtown Sacramento in the William R. Ridgeway Family Relations Courthouse, the dependency court does a brisk business on early mornings. Attorneys representing parents and children race through a calendar call for the day's proceedings. In each courtroom, a judge or referee sits at a high wooden desk as the advocates, standing in a semicircle, shuffle papers below.
The calendar call is fast and clinical. At 8:55 a.m. a case is held over. At...
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