SA lawyers cry foul over adoption cases
By Gilbert Garcia - Express-News
Arabia Vargas has served for most of the past decade as chairwoman of Bexar County's Child Welfare Board, a group created to promote adoptions of children in foster care. She's also a lawyer who earns a good living by handling the same adoption cases her board is working to promote.
That's where the problem comes in for many local attorneys. They contend that Vargas has used her position with the Child Welfare Board to muscle other attorneys out of Child Protective Services adoption cases, for which attorneys receive $1,200 per child (the fee was reduced last August from $1,500).
Jeanie Cupit, a San Antonio attorney who handles some CPS casework, said the situation started to attract the attention of local lawyers several years ago during monthly mass-adoption-day proceedings at the Bexar County Justice Center.
The rest of the story:
