LAW AND FAMILY

The Hardest Part of My Job is When We Help Abusers

I know everybody has the right to an attorney, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash

I used to do nothing but bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is easy — it’s nothing but forms. You almost never go to court, there’s almost nothing to do after the initial filing, and most clients — in the end — are happy. Or at least happier than they were when they started.

Especially the married meth addicts who took back their $1300 in cash off my desk when I stepped out of the room. We were convinced we’d been robbed for years. Years. Until I happened to see them in the criminal system and everything clicked into place.

Nope, not robbed. I’m just too overworked to notice that we were missing $1300 for, like, weeks.

I got bored doing bankruptcy. So now I do divorce, custody, and criminal work.

It’s definitely not boring.

We have a lot of drunk drivers, drug addicts, people loading up their arms with shoes and bolting into the Walmart parking lot with security hot on their heels.

And then we have the abusers. The men who beat their partners. The parents who harm their kids. And their cash spends like all the rest.