The AP is reporting on a gross government oversight by L.A. County. A 17 year old girl who was reunited with her biological father after 10 years is suing L.A. County for failing to use “due dilligence” to reunite them sooner.<\/p>\n
From the article —<\/p>\n
A teenage girl who had a much-celebrated reunion with her father last year after a decade in foster care is now suing the county for taking so long to find him.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles County supervisors said last September that the meeting of Melinda Smith, now 17, and her father Thomas Marion Smith, was the result of a “groundbreaking effort,” and congratulated county agencies for locating the father.<\/p>\n
But the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services failed to use “due diligence” to locate Thomas Smith as required by law. It claims the agency never notified Smith that his daughter was in foster care and never gave him a chance to claim her.<\/p>\n
“He’s a registered voter with a valid driver’s license and an open child support case,” said Smith’s attorney, L. Wallace Pate. “All they had to do, at any time during those 10 years, was pick up the phone and ask the L.A. County Child Support Services Department, `Do you have a contact on this man?'”<\/p>\n
County officials would not comment on the case because of the pending litigation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n