Girl, Interrupted

Alanna's case is unique for many reasons. "Clients have sued lawyers and therapists before, children have sued parents before," says Alan Scheflin, a tort law professor at Santa Clara University. "What makes this case significant is that, putting aside the nature of the theories in the complaint, this is really a way of saying that the family court system is screwed up. And just because [one person] does something wrong doesn't mean the whole system is screwed up, but this case signals the idea that we need to look more closely at how [minor's counsels] function, and whose interest they are serving."

The case is certainly not a sure win. It will be especially difficult, some legal experts say, to make the case against Alanna's attorney, since a minor's counsel often acts with great discretion. "To have so many professionals go the wrong way here is unusual in the sense that we usually have checks and balances," adds Vivian Holley, a San Francisco family law attorney. "You can't always believe everything a child says."

But Alanna's attorney, Richard Ducote, believes Alanna's case shines a spotlight on how some family courts fail to listen to children. "What we're doing with this case is we're holding [the defendants] to the same standards as everyone else," Ducote says. "If we forgot Alanna was a child, and we put her in this situation as an adult, she would be suing someone who beat her up and who denied her a relationship with her mother, and an attorney and a therapist who sold her out. The same [legal] standards should be applied to kids. There is this illusion that we are protecting kids, while we're actually doing so much damage to them."

It is an expensive form of therapy, but Alanna says the lawsuit will help her heal. "I had no rights," Alanna has written of her experience in Marin family court. "I felt like I was witnessing the proceedings from the wrong side of soundproof glass. Children are not parties in divorce proceedings -- we are property to be divided. Yet children are people, too. As citizens, we must be afforded our human and legal rights. And when those adults who are supposed to speak for us fail, we need some recourse."