Sworn Declaration of Facts

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whosechildrenarethey
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Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby whosechildrenarethey » Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:38 am

The Declaration of Facts has been completed and we just days out from pretrial where we hope to to get it on the record. Having completed it presents another set of problems because it's 40 pages long and try as we might, there is no way to par it down.

Add to that 50 pages of supporting documentation and certificate of service and we have a final declaration almost 100 pages long with no clue how to bind it together correctly to hand out at court. Ordinarily I would say we could staple it together just as they do all their Petitions, Case Plans, Court Orders etc... but I don't know of any stapler that will staple through a 100 page document.

I keep trying to find something on line and I guess it's because we are down to the wire that I can't find anything that instructs me in the correct way to put this package together and it doesn't seem correct to attempt to submit it loose or with a clip on it.

Any information would be so appreciated - Thank you...

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LindaJM
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Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby LindaJM » Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:31 am

Make sure there are no self-incriminatory statements. Not even slightly self-incriminatory. They will be held against you.

I believe if you run this past a lawyer you will be told not to submit a long statement because it will upset the judge.

Definitely ask your lawyer to review this before you submit it. A lawyer could pick out the most important pieces of information to include.
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Please keep in mind that none of us are lawyers and we can't give legal advice. We are simply telling you what we would do in a similar situation. It is to your advantage to get a lawyer.

"Evil flourishes when good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke ... so try to do something to change the system ...

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Eljay
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Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby Eljay » Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:41 am

Legal documents should be bound with a top two-hole punch. Like this: http://www.smead.com/Director.asp?NodeID=694

You may very well be shooting yourself in the foot with a declaration that long. Even the Unibomber's manifesto was "concise" when compared to 40 pages of testimony. You lawyer may downright refuse to even touch it. Be sure to tell your attorney to have a change or withdrawal of attorney of record form handy.
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

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whosechildrenarethey
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 7:00 pm

Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby whosechildrenarethey » Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:59 am

The Pretrial and Trial had been scheduled for this month. Yesterday I sent a request for the time and court room numbers. The reply was that the Attorney had asked for a continuance and she would get back to me. Which Attorney, theirs or ours, asked for the continuance I don't know but the clock tied to dependency cases does not stop ticking. To date there have been 3 Shelter Hearings and 4 Arraignments and now this continuance.

Trying to get 5 minutes of the court appointed Attorney's time is like asking for a million bucks. He does not call us back, answer emails and to date although pretrial and trial are only days away, he has yet to meet with us, to prepare us in anyway to give testimoney, he has not conducted any kind of investigation of his own or to request any kind of supporting documentation. It is painfully obvious that he doesn't work for us. In the immortal words of the late George Carlin, "It's a big club and we're not in it."

My daughter and I spent the day yesterday removing as much as we could from her Declaration of Facts and have it down to 29 pages leaving big gaps in important information and it's still to long. We are out of time, options, and pretty much at the end of our teather and somewhat outraged that the court can't be bothered to read her declaration and would be ANGERED because it's to long? CPS has pushed alot of paper and has entered two shelter petitions, a verified petition, a consolidation of case, two 40 page Case Plans etc.. but the court would be angered by a 40 page Declaration? So much for fair and balanced. Based on the way the cards are stacked against my daughter we are somewhat resigned to losing the upcoming trial creating a dire need to preserve issues for appeal which is why the Declaration is so important. It feels as though we won't be able to get it on the record either because her court appointed Attorney won't enter it for her and the Clerk of Courts won't accept it from my daughter because she has an Attorney. When my daughter attempted to make the record at her last arraignment the Judge told her to be quiet, this was not the place for that. So when does she get a chance to speak? At trial won't be the place for it either. She can only answer questions asked of her and that won't allow her to get her appealable issues on the record. We are trapped in the hampster wheel they call Justice. My three darling grandchildren are at stake in these matters, the oldest of which I have raised and has lived with me all his life and the youngest being an infant that was only 4 weeks old when seized. THEY WANT MY DAUGHTERS BABY!

There has been something bothering me a lot and your input would be appreciated. Sometimes a person is to close to a situation to see it clearly and I think I'm "that person." Since my grandson who is 8 has always lived with me, he was not with his mother when the alleged incident happened that caused CPS to be involved and seize her two other children. Two days later they came to my house to seize her oldest child from my home. I tried to show them that I had a signed notarized temporary guardianship agreement but they told me if the court didn't do the guardianship it wasn't valid and seized my grandson anyway without a court order. Following my grandsons seizure on a friday, there was a shelter hearing on Saturday morning with what I was told was a week end only judge where I wasn't allowed to speak, and there was another shelter hearing on monday. At that hearing I was able to obtain temporary court ordered custody placing my grandson in the protective custody and control of the state while allowing me to take my grandson home with me. That was in early August. It took us almost 2 months to get the two youngest out of foster care but all the kids are now with family, two with me and the infant with his Auntie. At the Case Plan Conference in late August we saw the Verified Petition and first draft of a Case Plan for the first time. I had been asking for copies of all paperwork and court orders for weeks which finally were delivered to me the third week in September. This is the first we saw the original petitions used at the shelter hearings. The petition used to shelter the oldest child, the one that was not with his mother when the incident occurred because he was at home with me, is an exact copy of the petition used to shelter my youngest two grandchildren that were with their Mother at the time of the incident. Shouldn't the facts contained in a shelter petition pertain to the child they are requesting shelter for and not the facts surrounding the shelter of his siblings? Is this legal? Are they correct in their position that the guardianship meant nothing because it wasnt done formally in court? And how can they include a child that was not even present when the incident occurred?

whosechildrenarethey
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Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby whosechildrenarethey » Tue Dec 04, 2012 6:15 am

I almost forgot to add that I think I may be in hot water with CPS. Since I received temporary custody of two of my grandchildren, CPS has done weekly home visits to include a walkthough and inspection of my home and closed door meetings separately with each child. After eight straight weeks of that, they cut it back to once every 21 days but still included separate closed door meetings with each child and a walkthrough inspection of each room in my home.

At the last visit last week, case manager came to the park where I had the children playing because she just showed up unannounced and I told her the children were happily playing and I was not making them come home but that she was welcome to join us at the playground which she did. While there she asked my 8 year old grandson to step across the playground with her to the other side of the playground so they could talk privately. He looked at her and said, "no thank you, I don't want to talk with you privately today." This was my first inkling that he didn't want to have these private chats and when the case manager then went to get my 4 year old grandson to have a private meeting with him I stopped her and told her we were not going to be doing private closed door meetings anymore or the walkthrough inspections of my entire house either. She didn't say anything, just made notes but I have a gut feeling this isn't going to go well for me.

I was able to find my states administrative codes with guidelines of what the case managers are supposed to do and there was nothing about home inspections and closed door meetings, only the timeframes within which they are supposed to have meetings at the home where the child is staying. Can they yank my grandchildren because I am putting a stop to the closed door meetings? Do I have to do every little thing the case manager says? It's intusive and apparently makes my grandson uncomfortable.

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LindaJM
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Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby LindaJM » Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:12 am

Take a copy of your declaration with a cover letter explaining what it is... to the attorney's office. Take your own copy and have the clerk there datestamp it and initial it to prove you delivered it. In the cover letter tell the attorney you want this information submitted to the court and that you need to be contacted as soon as possible for an in-person interview to prepare for court. See if that gets you any help. These court appointed attorneys (some of them) are notorious for not answering phone calls or emails. Certified letters are better. Or... like I said, just take it to his front desk and get proof that you left it there. Good luck!!!
Sample Document Library

Please keep in mind that none of us are lawyers and we can't give legal advice. We are simply telling you what we would do in a similar situation. It is to your advantage to get a lawyer.

"Evil flourishes when good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke ... so try to do something to change the system ...

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LindaJM
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:16 pm
Location: Northern California
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Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby LindaJM » Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:21 am

About your last question... "can they yank my grandchildren..." the answer is yes, they can take your grandchildren for anything, anytime. What they're doing to you and your grandchildren is terribly intrusive. I've never heard of such frequent home inspections and closed-door meetings before.

Is this a new trend?

More likely, they want you to be uncomfortable and to fail so they can put the children up for adoption eventually. I hope this trial goes well for your family!
Sample Document Library

Please keep in mind that none of us are lawyers and we can't give legal advice. We are simply telling you what we would do in a similar situation. It is to your advantage to get a lawyer.

"Evil flourishes when good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke ... so try to do something to change the system ...

User avatar
Eljay
Posts: 2645
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:01 am

Re: Sworn Declaration of Facts

Postby Eljay » Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:51 pm

I think you should ask the court/judge for legal guardianship of the kids so that YOU get legal custody back and get CPS out of the kids' lives. Of course, they won't want to do that because it means no money for them and they can't force mom to go through treatment, but is what mother did so bad that she shouldn't be raising the kids anyhow? It doesn't sound good so far with her kids scattered all over the place. :/


BTW, although the eldest child was with you at the time of the incident, the reality is that your guardianship paper are/were not legal. Therefore, mother would have the right to come pick up that child at any time. For whatever reason, CPS is calling her an unfit parent and the presumption is that unfit parents don't make good decisions about their children.... any decisions. So, whether mother placed child with loving, safe grandparents or with her drug dealer's best customer's half-niece's roommate, the presumption is that the mother made a bad decision and CPS needs to fix it and/or confirm that the placement is safe. Had you gotten a legally blessed guardianship contract, then the presumption would have been that a judge okay'd the decision/placement and it wouldn't need review.
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

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