"Perhaps the most memorable story of my first few months in the FLF office centered around a kindly, late-30s client. Perpetually donning the same green flannel shirt and blue baseball cap, this client, was one of the "familiar faces" in our office, stopping by at least twice a week in a dogged pursuit of visitation time with his young children. Sweet and caring as he was, the client was fully illiterate and didn't speak a word of English, traits that tended to render the U.S. justice system rather opaque and inaccessible. I spent hours during my first few weeks working intimately with the client - discussing his case with him, translating, filling out his forms and helping him file and serve his children's mother, which he accomplished through a 12-hour round-trip drive with a friend to her LA residence. 

 

        On a (comparatively) slow day, the attorneys let me go to observe the short-cause family law calendar, which I had never done before. Coincidentally, this happened to be the client's day in court, which I immediately knew upon seeing his blue cap sticking out in the courtroom. Excited to hear his case, I waited eagerly for his name to be called. The judge's demeanor and vernacular, however, was more suited toward English speakers and, particularly, high-paid attorneys, and she breezed past the client's case on the calendar before he even had a chance to speak up. Quickly noting the (perceived) non-attendance of the parties, the judge dropped the case entirely and moved on, rendering my many hours of work with the client's moot; the client himself didn't even understand what had occurred. I was alarmed, and quickly noted to the contract attorney next to me that I knew the client, he was in attendance, he did properly serve the mother, and that he had a right to have his case heard that day. After the calendar ended, the client came up to me and asked why he had not been called; we told him we'd see what we could do. 

 

           We went back to the FLF, and after sharing our story, the entire staff - who knew the client as well and felt as invested in him gaining access to the legal system as I did - was similarly alarmed. One of our attorneys ran up to the judge's chambers, explained the situation, and persuaded her that, rather than drop the case, she ought to continue it out a week and allow service of the continuance by mail (rather than through another onerous LA road trip). When we informed the client of his new date, he expressed relief and gratitude that he had been given another chance.

 

           The next week, the client had his hearing. I couldn't attend, but for the following few days, the staff and I would periodically check our court filing system, waiting for when his result would become available. Finally, it was scanned and uploaded, and we all saw what the client had been granted: visitation during school holidays, and three weeks with his kids during the summer. This may not seem like much, but for the client, I'm sure it meant the world. 

 

           It wasn't the fact that the client "won" or "lost" that mattered; we don't pick sides in these battles, and I've helped both parents in a case enough times by now to stop playing favorites. It was the fact that he got a fair hearing - that the levers of justice allowed a man who is in so many ways othered and excluded by American society to engage fairly in a complex lawsuit - that felt so meaningful to me. Particularly, knowing that without our office - and in this case, without me happening to end up in court that day - the client never would've had a chance, really crystallized in my mind just how important the work is that we do here."      

-Daniel Gifford, San Mateo County JusticeCorps Fellow