By Caroline D. Davis

Family Law CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) meet with kids in contested family law cases. These include divorce, paternity, third party custody, and modification cases. The CASAs are community volunteers who have gone through a 28-hour training set by the Administrative Office of the Courts and who work under the supervision of staff at the non-profit Family Law CASA office. The volunteers advocate for the best interests of the children. To do so,

CASAs meet and talk with the children as well as the adults and collateral references.

Meeting children in their home settings provides a chance to see the space allotted to them in homes and how they interact with other members of their families.

Talking to the kids provides a whole other level of information. Kids tell volunteers things like, “my dad doesn’t drink and drive, he only drinks at stop signs.” Little kids are the best as they like to spill the beans. Some of their conversations start with, “I am not supposed to tell you about mom’s boyfriend ...” and then launch off from there. Kids also want to be sure you know the pains they have gone to before the visit. “We spent the entire weekend cleaning because you were coming.”

Some of the children in the cases are too young to talk and some are old enough to have the world-weariness that comes from being a teenager. The conversations can be sad and at times disturbing. Children can be very critical of their parents telling volunteers way too much detail about the reasons for the divorce. Volunteers meet children who behave rudely with a parent, calling them names and belittling them, even hitting them. These kids are mimicking the domestic violence they have witnessed between the adults in their home. Children know when their parents are behaving badly and some kids, though embarrassed, want to share that, while others work hard to cover it up.

Volunteers come to realize that some children have taken over the role of the parent, particularly when a parent is a substance abuser. Family Law CASA cases involve a very high percentage (58%) of adults accused of having drug or alcohol problems.

Sometimes a volunteer is heartened by seeing a dramatic change in a child after a court order switches the primary residence. Kids who have had to act as caretakers for a troubled parent, revert to being relaxed and playful when moved to the better functioning parent. The conversation switches from “mommy does not feel well so I stay in my room and be quiet” to the minutia of events at school and how much fun it is to play with Barbie.

Whether upbeat or troubling, Family Law CASAs feel it is important for their reports to contain information from the perspective of the children. Although kids are the subject matter in contested cases, their parents often forget to address the most basic of the children’s needs while caught up in the whirlwind of a lawsuit. Providing a voice for these children can help to get them into a more stable home, into counseling, back to regular school attendance, away from an abusive adult, or to a much needed medical/dental or speech/hearing evaluation.

If you want to help speak up on behalf of low and moderate income

children in contested family law cases, become a volunteer. Applications are available on the website at www.

familylawcasa.com. The next training is at the end of September. Experience working in family law is not necessary. If you don’t have time to become an advocate, become a donor to the non-profit agency. n