Part Twelve: Fourteen Months

It took fourteen months to get to a trial, and that is fast.

People ask me why it takes that long and the answer is that a case like this is four cases running beside each other in four buildings that do not talk to each other.

There was the criminal case.

There was the family case, which had to be almost entirely suspended, because you cannot run a custody evaluation while one parent is charged.

There was the child protection case, which was its own file with its own caseworker and its own hearings.