Full Custody, Essay Sample with a Success Story

The client is a thirty-five years old Latin-American woman from Mexico, and she has no immigration status. She is also a mother of a seven-year-old daughter with whom, she lives within Queens, New York.

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Her case was referred to VIP, Inc. from Queens Family Justice Center on July 24, 2017. When I met with this client for the first time, she was shy and cried a lot. She mentioned that she had met her ex-partner, father of her daughter, in January 2010 and had constantly lied to her since the beginning of their relationship. She also stated that her ex-partner had told her that he was single and had no children. At first, he was polite and attentive to her, but after five months into the relationship, she noticed that her partner did not come home to sleep and returned to their home after three days and claimed that he had been working. She believed him.

She also recalls when she told him that she was pregnant and he abandoned her and reappeared up six months after her daughter was born claiming his father's rights to take his daughter with him. She mentioned that she found out that he had another family which made her devastated, despite feeling that her daughter needed a father. She stated that he would pick his six months old daughter up from her house and stayed with her in his home, for two days. At that time she was vulnerable and alone. She also remembers her ex-partner was violent and aggressive towards her. She stated that he would take his daughter to his house with his other wife and other children.

With time, she noticed that her daughter came home wounded and bruised and was afraid of going to her father's house. The child pleaded with her mother not to send her to her father's house because her father and his wife used to mistreat her. She mentioned that on several occasions her daughter did not want to go with him when he picked her up. However, he would drag her from the house by her arm and sometimes by her hair. She indicated pain when she saw her daughter being abused by her father the same way he mistreated her when they were in a relationship.

She, however, decided to stand up for her daughter's rights and decided to stop sending her daughter to her father's, a place she considered insecure for her. Then she mentioned that the father of her daughter went to the family court to place an order for custody/visitation. She had gone to the court severally before she became a client of VIP, Inc.

She told the counselor that she felt as if everybody was against her and nobody understood her in court. One social worker decided to accompany the client to court to advocate and translate for her. On March 12, 2018, the counselor accompanied the client where she met me at the Queens Family Court one hour before the hearing. The counselor was able to talk to the client's lawyer and explained her situation. Although the client and her counselor prepared a week before dates, her child's father missed visits with his daughter. We presented letters from the child's school and therapist to show the child was not happy going to his father house. Besides, there was a case with ACS that shows that the father did not have an individual bed for his daughter to sleep. We asked the client's lawyer to have the first weekend of every month with the client. Then, her ex-husband's lawyer talked to the client's lawyer to have a final decision. The client seemed intimidated and became emotional having her ex-husband close to her and two lawyers.

The counselor translated for the client and also advocated as her DV counselor upon seeing that the client was affected by seeing her daughter was afraid of her father and also his aggressive nature towards her in front of their child. At the end of the court day, the court concluded that the client would spend every first weekend of each month with the child every mother's day and the child would spend every father's day with the father. The child was also allowed to visit her father on Sundays for nine hours without sleeping at his house. Other than this, the client obtained full custody of her daughter.

Besides, the client went to child-support, and she was to receive $380.00 for child support, every month. She is also participating in different informative workshops in the VIP, Inc where she was able to socialize and make new friends. The client is also learning various educative workshop arts, such as painting and making jewelry to help her achieve the goal of being economically independent.

In a nutshell, the client is gaining trust and being empowered through discovering all her talents and realizing her full potential.