One of the toughest situations for a juvenile defender to deal with is one where the client is the subject of a custody fight between the parents. Each parent wants to blame the other for the fact that the kid is in trouble, each wants to bring all the allegations from the custody battle up in Juvenile Court, and each wants to be in control of what happens with the kid.
It's a given that the kid has to make his/her own decisions about the case. In Juvenile Court, though, they tend to rely on their parents to understand this scary part of the adult world. If the parents are fighting over the kid's future already, it gets really confusing for the kid.
I've seen studies that indicate that parents who engage in protracted custody disputes have most of the symptoms of personality disorders. It's one reason I quit taking family law cases several years ago- I'd rather take the afternoon off than spend it on something like that.
So here I go again forcing boundaries on parents who have none of their own. God, it gets tiring.
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