Page 97 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

for another place to live because her housing was marginal . Continuing to stay there felt like an uphill battle to make it a good place to remain with her children, but she could not afford higher rents . Needless to say, the landlord-tenant relationship was not the best . In order to attend housing court, Kay had to take off from work and now, in order to meet with the caseworker for an appointment that is scheduled during her work hours, she will have to take off from work again . If Kay does not work, she does not get paid . Kay is frustrated and nervous that she now has to talk to the caseworker .
Access for Kay to have her landlord make repairs to her apartment was fraught with many challenges that she navigated with self-help resources that are part of the access to justice toolkit . It is scary; even with many of those do-it-yourself tools, navigating the legal system with limited understanding is not easy, especially versus a landlord who has more resources and legal counsel . Now, having dealt with her housing situation, which is still not great, she receives an anonymous complaint about her care of her children . What is even more challenging is when you are not involved in a court proceeding but you still have to answer to an investigatory body . Kay is now about to enter discussions with a child welfare system because of anonymous allegations . The child welfare system is designed to help children and families, but the child welfare system is a protective system that also has a duty to investigate and a duty to protect children, if necessary, from their caretaker . Every action or inaction Kay takes will, in this dynamic, be scrutinized . It is a system that she abandoned and one that she may not fully trust .
Access to justice is more than improving an individual’s access to courts or guaranteeing legal representation . Access to justice should be the ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal as well as informal decision makers . When you are involved in an investigative process, the rules of contact and resolution are not always clearly defined . Access should include self-help, legal information, and legal representation as well as include reliable time frames or procedures when issues are raised that could impact your liberty or ability to raise your children . After the initial contact, Kay waited eight months for the investigation to conclude . The caseworker contacted Kay’s children’s school and monitored attendance . Kay provided what documents she had and submitted to the drug test when requested . She lost time and pay at work in order to follow up with the caseworker . Kay felt constrained with these allegations hanging over her head, but with nothing before the court, she felt she had to comply and felt helpless . Access to justice may feel like an illusion in these circumstances to a person subjected to anonymous allegations that take eight months to investigate . To further tackle access to justice and flesh out this definition, we need to explore how to safeguard and mitigate gaps that may give people the perception that their access does not exist .
III. Broken Adoptions
ollie’s story
Ollie, the father of Kay’s children, was adopted from foster care when he was two years old . As he approached his teen years, his adoptive mother stated his behavior was problematic . She sent Ollie to a therapist, but did not accept the therapist’s suggestions and refused to come in for weekly family therapy . She put Ollie out of the apartment and put Ollie back in to foster care .
Ollie’s group home was nearby the group home that Kay was living in and that is how they got together . They left the group homes and worked odd jobs and jobs off the books so they could afford a room, make a life, and have children . They also had a troubled relationship . When
Alternative Models
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