Last December, my best friend Jacklyn went through the most distressing thing a single mother can experience: her children were taken away from her.
Her daughter, Gabby, and her baby son, Kaleb, have been taken into emergency protective custody based on unsubstantiated claims. They've been taken from their home in Florida and brought to their father's family in Alabama. In both cases, child protective investigators cleared her of any wrongdoing. Even the police report of the officer who executed the pickup order noted how safe and enriching her home is. But she still needs to go to court due to civil petitions filed by the father’s family. This is where the real trouble comes in, because Jacklyn is not wealthy. She's struggling to afford an attorney, and the court case keeps dragging on. The family members Kaleb and Gabby are staying with won't let Jacklyn video call her own children, which has made this whole event even more painful and traumatizing.
On top of that, the Alabama court is requiring her to attend every hearing in person, so she has to drive up from Florida and stay in a hotel for each time. She's managed to retain two attorneys, one for the Florida filings and one for Alabama filings, but she can't afford this unaided for long. This is where I'm hoping you can work a miracle.
Your donation will go to her legal defense to rescue her children. We don't know how long this case will take, but if there are any funds remaining once Jacklyn wins her case and brings her children back, they would be put towards therapy for the three of them to process and recover from this horrifying endeavor.
The following financial outline is our best estimate for the costs to fight this case, with a total of $15,000 :
-$4,000 retainer fee for Florida attorney
-$350/hr for Florida attorney (estimating 10 hours at $3500)
-$4,000 retainer fee for Alabama attorney
-$250/hr for Alabama attorney (estimating 10 hours at $2500)
-$1000 for travel expenses to and from Alabama
This time has been truly agonizing for Jacklyn, but I can personally attest to what a fantastic mother she has been and how hard she's trying to maintain her spirit despite being apart from her children. She's doing everything in her power to construct a bulletproof defense by voluntarily taking state drug screenings, voluntarily taking state parenting classes, and gathering documents from the numerous child protective investigators that gave her glowing reviews. All that matters to us right now is reuniting this family. Thank you for caring enough to read this. I know with your help we can bring them all back together.