Girl Sues Los Angeles over Denial of Reunion with Father
This is a discussion on Girl Sues Los Angeles over Denial of Reunion with Father within the Chit chat (MAIN) forums, part of the Men's Talk & Variety category; Girl left in foster case files lawsuit Suit says county agency took a decade to locate father Tuesday, July 18, ...
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17th-January-2007
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Suit says county agency took a decade to locate father Tuesday, July 18, 2006; Posted: 11:09 a.m. EDT (15:09 GMT) ESPN360 Missed your favorite ESPN show? Find them here with ESPN360. www.broadband.espn.go.com Save on All Your Calls with Vonage Save 50% on your bill with Vonage unlimited local/long distance -... www.vonage.com Refinance with Bad Credit Compare up to 4 free quotes. Serious refinance requests only. www.homeloanhelpline.com More Useful Links • Laptop Computers • Sleep Aids • New Car Prices YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Welfare Los Angeles (California) or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? A teenage girl reunited with her father last year after a decade in foster care is suing Los Angeles County for taking so long to bring them together. County supervisors had said in September that the reunion of Melinda Smith, now 17, and father Thomas Marion Smith was the result of a "groundbreaking effort," and congratulated county agencies for locating the father. But the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services failed to use "due diligence" to locate Thomas Smith. It claims the agency never notified Smith, who had continued making child support payments, that his daughter was in foster care and never gave him a chance to claim her. "He's a registered voter with a valid driver's license and an open child support case," said Smith's attorney, L. Wallace Pate. "All they had to do, at any time during those 10 years, was pick up the phone and ask the L.A. County Child Support Services Department: `Do you have a contact on this man?"' Beginning in 1989, Thomas Smith made child support payments to Melinda's mother for his 1-year-old daughter, but when Melinda was 4 her mother moved and left no forwarding address. Two years later, Melinda was turned over to foster care officials after the county received complaints of abuse. Smith's whereabouts were listed as unknown in court documents on the case, although records show that Melinda's caseworker knew Smith was paying child support and his address was on file with the agency that collected the payments. Father and daughter were reunited in July 2005 after Melinda got help from a social worker assigned to find permanent placement for teens in foster care. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the county, the social workers who handled the case and a private agency that provides attorneys for children in foster care. County Supervisor Don Knabe blamed the problem on a communication breakdown between the Department of Children and Family Services and the Child Support Services Department. He planned to ask DCFS officials Tuesday to conduct an investigation and form a stronger partnership with the child support department. "We must view this latest incident as a perfect example of why county agencies must work in collaboration and not in a vacuum," Knabe wrote in a motion to the Board of Supervisors. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed   | |||
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18th-January-2007
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I've read this news article a while ago. Some moderator should move this to Fathers Forum . ~ Support Fathers & Families for Father's Rights and Equal Parenting! Go to fathersandfamilies.org ~ ~ Fathers & FamiliesTM improves the lives of children and strengthens society by protecting the child’s right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce. ~ ~ Feminism = Every bad thing any man has ever committed highlighted and exaggerated; every bit of good systematically undermined, vilified or ignored. ~ ~ A man needs a woman like a lion needs a stove. ~ ~ Women deserve only equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. ~ ~ Men are not collectively "guilty" of anything. ~ ~ Never needing to be pregnant is a blessing. ~ ~ Feminist ideology “men have to respect women, but women have no reason to respect men” ~ ~ Everybody makes choices, and nobody should be entitled to special treatment because of those choices. Equal results based on unequal treatment amounts to no kind of equality at all. ~ | ||||
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| ago, angeles, antimisandry, ar, article, de, denial, fa, father, fathers, forum, girl, los, los angeles, move, news, read, sues, ve, wi |
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