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Anonymous Tip: In Which Gordon Sees a Lawyer

Anonymous Tip: In Which Gordon Sees a Lawyer

Last updated on: October 9, 2015 at 8:42 am by Libby Anne

Anonymous Tip: In Which Gordon Sees a Lawyer 2015-10-09T08:42:48-04:00 Libby Anne

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A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris

Pp. 131-136

Today we cover the last seventeen hours before the hearing.

Gordon Landis sat patiently in the shabby waiting area. He had an appointment with a Legal Services lawyer at eleven that Monday morning. He aimlessly looked through the week-old newspaper for the first time. Finally his name was called and he went into the small office. Bob, a twenty-six-year old guy with an earring, was the lawyer.

Why am I getting the feeling that Farris does not like Legal Services? Their waiting area is “shabby,” they have a “week-old” newspaper out to read, and the lawyer’s office is “small.” Legal Services, Farris suggests, is soundly second-rate. Also, is it just me, or does specifying the lawyer’s age, along his earring, feel like a swipe against young people? Sigh.

Gordon was almost completely sober, but the effects of a weekend binge were apparent. Legal Services lawyers see all types. A drunk without a job was nothing new to Bob.

Oh goody.

Anyway, Gordon explains what happened, without, of course, mentioning that he called in the tip against Gwen. He tells Bob that he didn’t receive any legal notice of the original hearing or of Casey’s removal to foster care, and shows him the affidavit affirming that Gwen is a good parent that Peter had had him sign after the hearing. When asked, Gordon confirms that the contents of the affidavit were true.

Let me go ahead and quote the exchange that follows before adding my comments:

“What do you want me to do?” Bob asked.

“I want to know my rights. Should I go to court. Do I need a lawyer?”

“Do you want to get custody of your child?”

“Can I?”

“Maybe,” Bob replied. “Do you think these charges are true?”

“I know they’re not true,” Gordon said. He was grateful that Bob did not ask him how he knew they were not true.

“They could still find against her and you have a presumptive right to custody if you want. But the court will inquire into your fitness as a parent.”

“Like what?” Gordon asked.

“They’ll ask about your finances, your job, and your home situation. And maybe your drinking. You got a drinking problem?”

“No . . . not really,” Gordon stammered.

“What about a job?”

“I’m looking for the right thing right now.”

. . .

“Well, let me be honest. I don’t think you have a ghost of a chance of gaining custody. If i were you, I’d stay home tomorrow unless someone serves you with a subpeona.”

“Sounds good to me,” Gordon said.

I would love to see some of the lawyers in my readership comment on this. Personally, I’m surprised that Bob (who apparently does not have a last name, by the way) did not comment on the fact that Gordon was not properly notified of the hearing or Casey’s removal (remember that he would not know of it even now if Gwen’s lawyer, Peter, had not commented on it). I’m also surprised that Bob advises Gordon to stay home rather than actually advising him of his rights. He doesn’t even tell Gordon that if he cleans up and gets a job, he could get custody down the road.

And what about visitation? Gordon had visitation rights before Casey was removed from Gwen, shouldn’t he have visitation rights while Casey is in foster care (however long that might be)?

The entire thing just feels really unprofessional to me. And it underscores something the lawyers in my readership have noted with Gwen—Peter doesn’t ask Gwen what she wants him to do, and doesn’t even generally present her with the legal options available to her. Instead, he tells her what he’s going to do and what she needs to do. Here we see Bob doing the same thing—while he starts out by asking Gordon what he wants him to do, he doesn’t really follow through on that. Rather than giving Gordon his options, he simply tells him what to do.

Anyway, with this concluded, Farris spends half a page explaining that Peter filed his brief “on the constitutional issue” with the court, and copies with Judge Romer and Willet. Farris tells us that “Peter fully expected her to be unable to respond” because the brief was so last minute. As it turns out, Willet has no problem at all. She pulls up some of the briefs she wrote in Seattle (on a floppy disk, of course) and cuts and pastes from four prior cases to create her own brief responding to Farris’s.

At 5:45 p.m., two hours and fifteen minutes after receiving Peter’s twenty-three pager, Willet pulled her thirty-five page polished response from the printer. She would personally hand it to Peter Barron just before the hearing. She would relish the look on his face.

I’m not entirely sure what we’re supposed to learn from this. Are we supposed to see Willet as competent, or as taking shortcuts? Are we supposed to see Peter ask having hubris? That would be quite the admission, for Farris! Or, perhaps the entire point of this section is simply to underscore the way Willet is approaching her contest with Peter?

But now back to Gordon. Peter calls Gordon to remind him of the hearing.

“Gwen really needs you to come and testify for her.”

“Huh . . . Well, I’ll see if I can.” His slurred speech indicated heavy drinking.

As you can see, this goes very very badly.

The focus on Gordon continues the next morning during the hearing.

Dawn found Peter leaning on the railing of his deck watching the sun rise over Liberty Lake. The sky was partly cloudy, a high, thin, layer of white here and there. The air was still cool, but would soon give way to the gentle warmth of the midmorning sun. His brief was complete. His expert witness readied. The adverse witnesses had been subpoenaed. Peter suddenly thought, Too bad I didn’t sent a subpoena to Gordon Landis.

Yes, that probably would have been a good idea.

He went over and over the scenario of the day in his mind. Ever since Gwen left his office the day before, he had been able to completely focus on Gwen the client. Gwen the woman had only crossed his mind a day or two. It was time for battle and the litigator in him had arisen. The combination of instinct and experience was surging through him, allowing him to focus on this hearing to the exclusion of all else.

You know, if “Gwen the woman” was making it so hard for him to focus the week before, he could have passed her case off to a lawyer whose focus would have been more undivided. Also, I’m setting this section to theme music in my head.

Peter went inside to dress at 7:00, Farris tells us, and arrived at the juvenile court waiting room at 8:10. He had thought he was arriving early—they had agreed to meet at 8:15—but as it turns out, Gwen, Stan, and June had been there since 8:00. The four of them headed to the conference room.

Peter gave the three of them a brief verbal outline of what he expected from each of the anticipated witnesses at the hearing. Not only was Peter more capable than Walinksi, it was obvious that he really cared about Gwen and her case.

Has Gwen the client become Gwen the woman again?

By 8:30, they started to worry about Gordon. Peter offered to call him, but Stan and June said Gwen should be the one to do so. Gwen’s not happy, but says she’ll do “whatever it takes” to get Casey back, so she makes the call.

“Huh. Uh . . . Hello.”

“Gordon, this is Gwen.”

“Yeah?”

“Gordon . . . uh . . . umm,” Gwen stammered, “are you coming to court this morning?”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, it’s real important.”

“Not for me, it isn’t.”

“What do you mean? Do you really want Casey in a foster home? Isn’t that important to you?”

“Well, yeah. But there’s nothing I can do now.”

“My lawyer says it could really help if you came.”

“Yeah, I know that’s what he says. But I went to a lawyer yesterday and he told me to stay away if I wanted.”

“Gordon, please. Please, do it for Casey . . . and for me.”

“I’ll see.”

A surge of fear coursed through Gwen’s heart. “He’s not coming.”

In next week’s installment, we’ll begin the hearing. Will Gordon show up? Or will he stay home drinking? The tension is mounting!

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