Expanding Responsibilites

I feel as though my internship supervisors are finally utilizing my skills. For the past few times I’ve worked, they have assigned me substantive work to do. Today, my supervisors had a light amount of work, so they directed me to speak with another attorney in the office to see if they needed any help. I found an attorney named Victoria who was relieved to give me some things to work on. The first task she gave me was to complete a 21 day motion. This is a motion issued when a child needs to be admitted into the hospital for psychological evaluation. Because the child is legally the government’s responsibility, the court has to approve the child being under the hospital’s care. For a period of 21 days the child is the hospital’s responsibility and they must take care of him/her. In the case I worked on today the child was admitted into the hospital because he became violent and bit his foster brother. Therefore, the doctors recommended that he stay in the hospital for further psychological evaluation to see why he acted in this way and how they can help him.

The motion needed to be completed by this afternoon so it could be filed for the next day. The government has a legal responsibility to complete this form within 48 hours of the child being admitted into the hospital. Within this document, consent from the mother’s counsel and the GAL needed to be documented to show that we attempted to contact them about the situation. Because I could not reach them when I called, I was able to write that there was no consent due to the fact the parties could not be reached. Even without their consent, the government is able to act because of the emergency nature of the situation. The attorney checked my work after it was completed, and she found no errors. I was very excited to hear this.

Because I did so well on the 21 day motion, Victoria gave me another assignment to complete. I had to draft a Permanency Hearing Order for her. Once explained to me, I had no problem it. She specifically stated that I did not have to stay later than usual to complete this, but I was determined to finish it before I left. I stayed for an extra half hour, and Victoria noticed this. She was appreciative of my hard work and dedication. I am glad she saw this because I want to set a good example of my hard work ethic. Overall, I am learning so much at my internship and I’m really enjoying the work. Hope it continues!

-Andreanna

P.S. I’m attaching a photo from our trip to The White House this week!