Some things...
Hi,
I'm not an attorney, but clearly your husband had the right to access the courts and fight his case. Here's some things to consider....
A jury by trial, means that your trial and the ex's defense will be undertaken before a collection of those up for jury duty, as a panel of his peers, so qaulified to be jurors. Likely 6 or 12 jurors, depending.
1. A Jury trial takes longer and thus your ex will enjoy some extra days out of the cell, to smell the rozes, joke with the guards and wile away the stories within, from without. (Common desires to seek any form of outside opportunity, from prison, right?)
2. Jury selection is a procedure which allows your councel to choose wisely, respectable parent types, from however many are made available from the jury pool, teachers, public servants, etc. Each side can toss out so many jury candidates for specific reasons and so many for no reason stated. You carefully want to be sure your attorney sees this as important and study jury selection on the web, if you can. Don't assume your case is a shoe in. Jury consultant from google search, in Arizona ....
http://henningtonand.reachlocal.com/coupon/?scid=45991&cid=5894&tc=05091020524670940
The courtroom is as much about the art of delivery as it is about knowing law, before a jury, especially. Does your attorney have years of criminal trial litigation?
3. If the folks in your interest are behind you, and you don't have a miserable past he could use against you, or some other major skeleton in your closet, a Judge will tend to be swift and spare the Jury as much as possible, usualy if the judge can see it's a railroad, though they can't tell you that for ethical reasons, save that they follow proper procedure.
4. What are the merits of the claims he has made to defend his parental rights?
5. Have you asked the court to assess a psych eval on him, regarding fitness as a parent?
6. Has there been visitation with his child(ren)?
7. Will the cild(ren) be minor's in 2012?
8. Has he been a model prisoner, or contemptuous throughout? Records from the prison?
9. Does he have sound character witnesses that will speak on his behalf?
10. What was the nature of the crime he was convicted of?
11. Any sexual misconduct in his past?
12. Will the child(ren) be of age, by the time he's out and therefore what quality of parenting and moral impact will he provide his children from Prison?
13. How's he doing as a provider?
14. Why has the court provided a guardian? This seems odd, but I don't know the details of why that's done, or anything about Arizona procedures. Do you not have custody yourself?
15. There are reasons and rights for terminating parental rights, but your attorney will have to explain those to you, based on the grounds for the action filed and the circumstances of it all.
As an unqualified opinion, among these general considerations, you will likely fare well overall. Yes, jury trials take a little longer and be assured of an attempt at an appeal after the trial, since it's more time for him, outside the box. It shouldn't be too bad though. I've seen Jury trial and judgement in under 40 days from where you're at now, motions and filings already in. If he doesn't find ways to delay, it could go well, but know he will try to file an endless stream of motions if his attorney doesn't get scolded by the judge. Professional witnesses can add time to the testimony phase too.
There are sometimes young attorneys working pro bono free cases for a law firm as one begins to pursue a legal career. Sometimes a liberal judge will allow some learning for for a young attorney doing a free defense. I once spent 7 hours on a hearing pro per, for driving on suspended license by jury, because the judge, me and a foreign exchange student prosecuter in training, all enjoyed the whole process. (I got sentenced to pay a $1.00 fine and almost won the case!!) Jury Deliberated for 4.5 hours. Not bad for a stupid traffic ticket.
Good luck
Urban
