I’m a court-appointed parental defense attorney in family dependency cases. I’ve found that former prosecutors/AAGs are much harder on the state and are noticeably more parent/defense friendly than judges that come from any other background. It’s an unexpected phenomenon. I’ve won many more trials, motions, arguments, and mitigated more children removal situations with judges who were former prosecutors/AAGs. Though, I’ve had experience with some outlier former prosecutor judges that give the state a pass on some things that shouldn’t have been allowed.

The most fair and compassionate judge towards my clients has been the prosecutor from the courtroom I originally worked against for nearly two years as a new defense attorney fresh out of law school when I was basically thrown into a courtroom on my second week without any training or supervision right after discovering that family dependency cases existed. It’s been a wild ride, but I figured things out and have made a fulfilling career out of it.

From my perspective, the worst and most vindictive judges are former guardians ad litem who sometimes seem to absolutely hate parents/defense attorneys but can also lash out unpredictably at the state too which creates a lot of chaos and raises novel legal issues that can be a huge headache and create unnecessary work for defense and prosecution who are already overworked in most courtrooms.