California
About 4 months ago my girlfriend and I had our daughter taken away by child protective services where she has remained in custody since. We have 5 day a week 1 hour per day supervised visits. The initial grounds for removal was alleged domestic violence going on in the home. This is not true and they could never prove that it was. That was all based on here say. CPS figured they had better come up with somethng else so they focused their case on the mothers disability, epilepsy. They implied that she was slow witted by saying that she would probably not pass an IQ and devopmental test. They outright called her developmentally challenged in a report. She aced their tests and proved them wrong. Still they hammered her. They were not going to let it go. They started attacking her medication which she must take in order to control seizures. They said that the meds she's on makes her "emotionally unavailible" for her child. HUH??????? Did they just come up with that off the tops of their heads? The medication she takes makes her drowsy and that's all. She has tried a host of other medications and the only one that is effective with her is the one she's on. I've seen her on other med's, and she has seizures all over the place. That, is exactly what they would like to see. The mother falling down and have seizures so they can then say, "look, she's a mess. She can't take care of a child in this state." We feel this is a clear cut case of discrimination. If the mother did not have epilepsy, we would have our child back right now for lack of foundation on the original claim. They have overtly made statments that are discriminatory and the court has done nothing about it. In fact the judge agreed with CPS that the child shouldn't be returned as long as the mother is on this kind of medication. There is no such thing as an anti-convulsant that doesn't make you drowsy and doesn't effect motor skills and response time. She has consulted numerous neurilogical specialists on this. I guess my question would be, can we sue? I think a lawsuit is in order here. We have not the money to hire an attorney, but I would think that there is one out there that would take the case. Any input would be most appreciated especially on how one would get started with obtainig legal help and such. We want to sue to get our daughter back plus a little something extra for are troubles. Especially the trouble my girlfriend had to endure.
About 4 months ago my girlfriend and I had our daughter taken away by child protective services where she has remained in custody since. We have 5 day a week 1 hour per day supervised visits. The initial grounds for removal was alleged domestic violence going on in the home. This is not true and they could never prove that it was. That was all based on here say. CPS figured they had better come up with somethng else so they focused their case on the mothers disability, epilepsy. They implied that she was slow witted by saying that she would probably not pass an IQ and devopmental test. They outright called her developmentally challenged in a report. She aced their tests and proved them wrong. Still they hammered her. They were not going to let it go. They started attacking her medication which she must take in order to control seizures. They said that the meds she's on makes her "emotionally unavailible" for her child. HUH??????? Did they just come up with that off the tops of their heads? The medication she takes makes her drowsy and that's all. She has tried a host of other medications and the only one that is effective with her is the one she's on. I've seen her on other med's, and she has seizures all over the place. That, is exactly what they would like to see. The mother falling down and have seizures so they can then say, "look, she's a mess. She can't take care of a child in this state." We feel this is a clear cut case of discrimination. If the mother did not have epilepsy, we would have our child back right now for lack of foundation on the original claim. They have overtly made statments that are discriminatory and the court has done nothing about it. In fact the judge agreed with CPS that the child shouldn't be returned as long as the mother is on this kind of medication. There is no such thing as an anti-convulsant that doesn't make you drowsy and doesn't effect motor skills and response time. She has consulted numerous neurilogical specialists on this. I guess my question would be, can we sue? I think a lawsuit is in order here. We have not the money to hire an attorney, but I would think that there is one out there that would take the case. Any input would be most appreciated especially on how one would get started with obtainig legal help and such. We want to sue to get our daughter back plus a little something extra for are troubles. Especially the trouble my girlfriend had to endure.