J is for Judge

 Hate the decision or love it the judge makes all decisions with child welfare cases. The judge decides if there is enough evidence to pull a child out of a home, most people don't know that though. They always seem to blame the social workers. They can pull a child out of a home for 48 hours if they're sure the child is in immediate life threatening danger and they have to have enough evidence of abuse to prove to a judge it was a serious emergency. Otherwise the judge will have them return the child if there's not enough evidence. They also decide when the parent is ready to have their child back, granted most time they take the advice of the social worker but in Giggles case the judge decided it just wasn't fair. With Angel's case the judge decided defiantly not reunifying her as it went against the therapist, case worker, supervisor, lawyer and even dad's lawyer was said 'well he didn't show up, guess he doesn't really care.' Sometimes I wonder if the judges know how much their decisions affect these children. Do they just make decisions to hurry the case along to cross one more off the list? Or do they really consider the child's best interest in the situation?