Hi Everyone,
For anyone who doesn’t already know, Legal Aid has offices within each court house called FLIC. It stands for Family Law Information Centre. Just as a reminder, everyone is entitled to seek legal advice from the FLIC office whether or not they qualify for Legal Aid. In the last few months, I’ve invested A LOT of my time in the local FLIC office and it’s NOT FUN!!! This is what I mean.
Before you can even get into the FLIC office, you have to get through security. Since I’ve never been to anything but family court myself, I was taken aback when I had to place my handbag on a belt for it to be scanned and then to walk through a metal detector. One day, which was stupid on my part, I left my handbag unzipped as there were a series of what I considered to be questionable people standing by it as I was on the other side of the metal detector five feet away as I closely watched my handbag and the people closer to it than myself. Since that day, I always zip my handbag and place my wallet at the bottom of it every time. Oh and if you look anxious, then the police officers don’t just look at you like you are a criminal even though you aren’t they treat you like one too! And that is just the beginning!
Once in the FLIC office, the first thing I do is sign my name on the waiting list and then count how many people are ahead of me. Then I ask what the person looks like because one legal aid lawyer kicked me out of her “office for the day” while another played on her BlackBerry every 5 seconds while she was training someone! If either one of them are there to “help,” I already know I’m better off at home! Once I have figured out who is working, I go to the bathroom, get a coffee, sit in the coffee shop and read. The coffee shop is not always quiet so sometimes I go back to the FLIC office or sit in the hallway to read.
There are some interesting people sitting in the waiting room of that office. Some of those people are men who are seeking access to their one or more children. I remember when my daughter’s father took me to court for more access in 1995, only to willingly give it up in 2001 when he moved into his brand new house with his then girlfriend, now wife, so that my daughter couldn’t remind me about his expensive taste in video and audio equipment etc. Yep! Those were taxpayer dollars well spent! Or should I say, WASTED!!! On a side note, my daughter’s father also withheld child support for 18.42 months in order to use, as I believe, the child support money as an additional down payment on his brand new house!
There are also businessmen and businesswomen who generally don’t say a lot. There are other single parents, who normally keep to themselves too. And then there are what I like to call TRAINWRECKS!!! Because they are a (growing) breed of their own, they deserve their own blog which will be posted later this week called, Trainwreck Spotting. If it’s not difficult enough to survive the trainwrecks, one has to get through the day of sitting in the FLIC office.
You know this is what I don’t understand. People put their names on the waiting list and will wait for HOURS to be seen by a Legal Aid lawyer, but when it’s their turn, the one they’ve waited HOURS for, they aren’t ready! OR they aren’t ready and they walk at a snail’s pace, not giving one caring concern that they are WASTING the time of others after them. So instead of being ready, like the majority of those waiting are, they just take their sweet time! That really pisses me off because it happens at least a few times a day. All of those extra wasted minutes do make the difference of someone getting in to seek legal advice, especially if their name is the last one that could be called. And yes that has happened to me more than once!
Then there are the people who try to “bud” in line with some lame excuse of, “Oh I didn’t know that there was a second page,” and then try to sweet talk themselves into seeing a Legal Aid lawyer sucking up even more of everyone’s precious time. The one thing that happened to me this week is right up there with my trainwreck blog.
There was a woman who, again, has been waiting for HOURS, said to me, in an accusatory tone like it was my fault, “They didn’t call my name. That’s not fair, I should be in there.” My reply was, “I heard them call your name three times.” According to her they didn’t, BUT if they did, she couldn’t hear her name being called because, “the kids were too loud.” I thought, “REALLY LADY? From ALL the VACANT SEATS, right here, where they call people’s names, you STILL decided to remain seated in the farthest corner of the room.” Frustrated, I said, “Just go ahead of me. Really, I don’t care.”
One would think that that she would be thankful and end it there but she didn’t! She just kept going on, and on and her friend chimed in every few seconds too! “The onus is on everyone waiting to be ready for when their name is called,” were words I should have kept to myself, but didn’t. That was a HUGE mistake! At one point she and her friend TOLD me to escort her to the list, just so I could see, how wronged she had been when they apparently didn’t call her name. Wanting her to shut up, I did. Her breath was SO BAD, I almost offered her some gum, but thought otherwise.
BUT the best part of this is the fact that this woman had a walker that had a SEAT on it! So even if ALL the VACANT SEATS at the front were taken, she still had one of her own! That means, that she could have very easily planted herself right by where they call names, sat on the seat of her walker and wouldn’t have had the extra wait which means I wouldn’t have had to unwillingly listen to her! The above of course requires some level of intelligence or sense, of which she clearly lacked both! And that makes me ask, “Is that how she conducts herself in everyday life? Blaming others for her mental shortfall?” In my opinion, she does and in my opinion, she and her friend are trainwrecks and have most likely raised trainwrecks!
Now the other thing that pisses me off about going to the FLIC office is the fact that everyone is at the MERCY, and that is the correct word, of what the Legal Aid lawyer feels like disclosing to you which of course may or may not be based on their level of experience in cases that are similar to yours. Just last week, after I started to explain why I was at Legal Aid to begin with, I sensed that the Legal Aid lawyer wasn’t exactly clear as to why I was there. I asked her if she had heard of D.B.S. and if she knew what blameworthy conduct was. She knew what blameworthy conduct was and I explained D.B.S. to her. I am serious. After she gave me some advice, she told me that my case was complicated, which politely means a FRIGGING LEGAL MESS!!!
After dealing with the lady in the walker, and hearing the Legal Aid lawyer tell me my case was complicated, I just looked at her and said, “It’s only complicated BECAUSE THE COURTS HAVE ALLOWED IT TO BE! From all the times I’ve been to court, this matter should have been resolved over 14 years before. And if, the judge would have fully reviewed my case in May of ‘96, I most likely wouldn’t be here to begin with.” Well, that Legal Aid lawyer didn’t like that, but she doesn’t know my case, or its history. Maybe if she chose to allot me more than 20 minutes, we could get somewhere, but she didn’t. I admit, I was angry that day and I wasn’t exactly helping myself. Then again, I ask if anyone reading wouldn’t be pissed off too!
Here are some links to past blogs that relate to today’s,
Personal Hygiene People! http://arebelsrant.com/personal-hygiene-people/
If Everyone Just Did What They Were Supposed To! http://arebelsrant.com/if-everyone-just-did-what-they-were-supposed-to/
Tuesday July 30, 2013 http://arebelsrant.com/tuesday-july-30-2013/
What I Said On Tuesday July 30, 2013 http://arebelsrant.com/what-i-said-on-tuesday-july-30-2013/
Not Accepting The… http://arebelsrant.com/not-accepting-the-3/
Friday May 17, 1996 http://arebelsrant.com/friday-may-17-1996/
Legal Aid—Ontario http://arebelsrant.com/legal-aid-ontario/
A Single Parent’s Quest for Justice—The Condensed Version http://arebelsrant.com/a-single-parents-quest-for-justice-the-condensed-version/
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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