Mary* came to SALSA hoping to modify the support order for her 3 year old child. When Mary first met with her volunteer attorney, the child’s father had just been jailed for assaulting his new girlfriend, in violation of a protective order, and the girlfriend had just told Mary that during almost every recent visitation with the child the father had been high on drugs.
The matter required immediate action because the father was about to be released from jail and would demand his weekend and extended visitation. Within a week of the initial meeting, the volunteer attorney filed a petition and obtained an ex parte order barring all visitation. At subsequent hearings, the attorney obtained temporary orders for supervised visitation, requiring the father to attend a drug rehabilitation program and be tested for drugs and eventually obtained a final order including a three-phase visitation approach requiring the father to complete certain milestones for increased access.
Mary and her child received the protection the situation demanded and the volunteer attorney’s efforts indirectly provided assistance to the father by encouraging him to get help and stay clean in order for him to visit his child.