For my internship I am working with Mr. Jesse George at a Pro Bono Law firm downtown. This law firm deals with family and juvenile cases and will represent children in the foster case system. Today I got to sit in a court hearing at the 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna where they dealt with the termination of parental rights for a 1 year old indian girl. Mr. George told me this is one of the most complicated cases he's had because there are different laws and requirements for children if they're part of an indian tribe, such as she must continue to live with her brother and be part of the tribe even if her only living parental figure is not able to care for her. Also, the mother of the child only started showing up to court 6 months into the case. Other than going to court, Mr. George and his firm hold a variety of clinics, due to the fact that they are a pro bono firm. I sat in a clinic today where Mr. George helped people who want to claim property or possessions of dead family members who did not have a will (succession clinic). He had never done this type of clinic, so both of us learned a lot about this process. I mainly had to call people back into the office and run and make copies of death certificates and such during this time. The entire clinic lasted 4 hours and we only saw 5 clients. One other thing I got to do is file old cases that have been resolved into the database for the firm. In the picture below you can see the massive stack of case files I had to go through to find case numbers and names of kids and see how they were resolved. Overall, this internship has been very interesting and I enjoy sitting through the court hearings and I'm excited to see what new cases pop up during the remainder of my time here.
What a great internship, Anna. You are really getting a look at vastly different cases. Can't wait to hear about what else you learn.
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