A small group of private attorneys in Sonoma County have been paid more than $1.4 million in public funds over seven years to represent children in their parents’ divorce and custody cases. One attorney, Daniel ‘Dan’ Beck, collected more than $271,000 of that total, billing taxpayers at $100 an hour while a mother under a temporary custody order waited years for a permanent ruling on custody of her own child.
Public records obtained by the Vanguard reveal how these appointments work, who gets them, and what happens when a complaint about one of them disappears into a dead email inbox for four months.
WHAT IS A TEMPORARY ORDER – and WHY DOES IT MATTER?
When parents go through a divorce or custody dispute in family court, a judge can issue a temporary custody order while the case is still going on. The idea is simple: set up a short-term arrangement while the court works toward a permanent solution.
In practice, ‘temporary’ can mean years. These orders cannot be appealed. Parents and children are bound by them, sometimes without any trial, sometimes after a single hearing — waiting on court dates while legal fees pile up…