The Bar + its concerns

Last week, The American Bar Association released a statement that (in part) read, "The American Bar Association has grave concerns about today's decision to immediately end most of the government-funded legal services program for unaccompanied children," 

As an Advocate, I join the ABA in their concerns. After all, no child should be compromised by the lack of legal representation.

However, I wonder where this concern has been for children whose lives are being decimated by the Family Court System, on an international scale?

Children are, and have been, under-represented in the Courts. This is nothing new.

In fact, I suffered as a result of this under-representation as a child myself. 

As an adult, this is a story that I have heard from hundreds, if not thousands, of Protective Mothers both here in the States and abroad. 

This "problem" is pervasive. It is something that we urgently need to address. I believe that we have to start acknowledging that our Justice System is in need of repair, across the board.

As it stands, the Family Court System is not working for our most vulnerable citizens. Nowhere is that more evident, than when Officers of The Court readily collude with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence, to hunt/target Survivors of Coercive Control.

I coined the term Attorney-enhanced Coercive Control to draw attention to how our Legal Systems are being undermined by those that we should trust to uphold them the most, namely Officers of The Court. Members of all Bar Associations, in all 50 states, should be held to the standards that The American Bar Association wants our White House Administration to be held to.

We should all be working together, to protect our institutions, to shield our most vulnerable from harm, namely women and children. 

I believe this is an opportunity. An opportunity for us to wake up, to work together, to create Systemic changes and to collaborate to ensure that our Justice System reflects what we intended for it to be, and what we want it to become.

- Kaitlyn