Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Dear D.B.,

Provided you are in position to take care of your grandkids, I would say that all other things being equal, the Courts will almost always place children with relatives rather than strangers. That said, I am sure there is a lot more detail to your case that I or any other attorney would need to go through to give you a more informed answer about how to proceed and what the odds of success are that you or another family member will prevail in obtaining custody of both kids, whether on a temporary or permanent basis.

You are going need to be prepared to come up with some funds to hire counsel, and if you are unable to afford that, then I suggest that you get on the internet and start searching out organizations that offer low cost or free attorneys. It may not be as good as hiring a private attorney, but having some counsel represent you is better than going in blind. Also, I want to emphasize, I don't think there is anything wrong with low cost or free attorneys. It is just that they are often over burdened with their work loads that as a consequence, it is often times harder for them to do as good a job for you, regardless of how smart, dedicated, or creative they are in pursuing your case.

Getting back to your case, the one thing I have learned is that in cases where there are family, in order for a court and CPS to both have highly negative opinions about placing a child with strangers instead of family, there has to be seriously negative information on record related to the family. Hopefully, it is misinformation, which is what the attorney you hire would want to clarify, and I think this is where anyone handling this matter would want to start�with an analysis of the reported information to date.