I rarely enjoyed my time assigned to Family Crimes Unit and DVU. You lost even if you won with those cases-the tragedy of the lives that I saw made me vow that I would never take a divorce case in private practice and would never take any child abuse case unless I was 100% certain that the person was innocent and was being prosecuted because of someone lying to the cops.
That happens, all to often. We don't do divorces. The custody cases he has aren't too bad. The sad part is that too often, it seems, we are assigned cases where neither parent is any better than the other.....both exaggerate and lie; often times many are scum (both of 'em). It's refreshing when we get a case where we actually can really do some good for the child. All these kids are getting all screwed up though. It's really a tragedy.
Good decision.
Some cases are so dirty, that some of it would rub off on you.
I really wish we had a better selection of attorneys here for for family/juvenile court. We generally have the same basic collection for nearly every hearing. Most of the parent counsel is pretty ineffective, which makes my job easier, but sometimes it would be nice to actually see them have to work for their clients.
I agree with you though. I see some terrible things and I have a rough time retaining professional composure with some of these people. Generally, the sexual abuse cases, particularly the ones involving very young children, and the custody cases, are the ugliest, although for obviously different reasons.