Although the courtroom remains an important site for excellent representation of parents in child welfare cases, no less important legal work needs to occur elsewhere. 2022 American Bar Association, all rights reserved. 91. See Id. Appreciating the likelihood that the agencys failure to hear this information in person would, at minimum, severely delay a resolution of the case, the defense teams social worker requested that the surgeon write a letter to the court explaining that, although he recommended that Eduardo have the surgery, the surgery was not medically necessary and Mr. Sanchezs preference to give nonsurgical treatment one more try was an appropriate exercise of parental discretion. In these cases, the agency has never met the mother and is brought in to begin a fresh investigation. This kind of advocacy can only be implemented by multiperson offices. The leading characteristic of the offices method of representing parents is to participate actively in the case conferences held at the agency where the case plan for each case is established.65 These plans set the stage for all that follows and are often the single most important factor in a cases outcome. Our attorneys, social workers and other staff work together to advise, assist and represent parents every step of the way. However, the defense team knew that having this conference in front of the judge provided another advocacy opportunity to build on the judges favorable impression of Ms. Anderson. See Family Defense, NDS: The Power of Pub. Supervising Attorney, Family Defense Practice - Brooklyn Defenders New York, New York, United States . Despite a formal agency policy known as Child Safety Alert 14,74 which called for the agency to conduct a meeting prior to the birth in every case,75 agencies routinely fail to hold pre-birth planning conferences with pregnant women unless a client or her legal team advocates for or requests the court to order its convening.76 Even when such conferences do take place, experienced practitioners complain that the discussion and recommendation from the pre-birth conference is, in reality, largely irrelevant to whether the baby will be taken after delivery.77 Instead, the really important meeting takes place at the hospital, within hours of the babys birth. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. at 17, 3839 (oral testimony of Angeline Montauban, parent). at 23 n.179. By planning carefully with the mother during the pregnancy and preparing for the child to come home with her, the team ensures that living arrangements are set and baby paraphernalia (cribs, diapers, food) are at the ready. This case reveals the amount of time and attention the holistic offices give to their clients and reveals what is needed to serve parents well when they become enmeshed in the child welfare system. Similar to the agencys response at the pre-court conference, Ms. Andersons advocates were unable to persuade the judge to order the babys return to Ms. Anderson. In that capacity, she also represented parents in a wide range of matters related to family law . As impressive as the results of the quantitative findings are in showing a significant deduction of unnecessary days children spend in foster care in New York City, this Article strongly suggests that the defender offices have a far greater impact on the reduction of foster care.94. In addition, major improvements have been made to parental representation systems in a number of other states, including Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, and North Carolina. 44. By now, two additional months had passed, and the surgeon thought it wisest to order a new series of x-rays before making any decision that day. The defense team not only was able to achieve the return of Ms. Andersons daughter to her custody, it resolved the entire case, eliminating further need for court appearances. When these errors are not revealed, the official record supports the erroneous conclusion that a child was removed from a parents home for a substantial reason. She asked her mother to take Sophia to see a doctor because Ms. Green had to be at work. In exchange for Ms. Anderson consenting to a finding that she neglected her child, the parties agreed to what is known in New York as an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.81 The parties agreed to a settlement order that ensured that Ms. Anderson would have custody of her daughter and be subject to supervision for nine months on the understanding that the finding of neglect would be vacated and the petition dismissed in nine months unless the agency could show that Ms. Anderson placed her daughter at risk in the interim. The Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defenders has been representing parents and other caregivers in Family Court since 2007. All names used throughout this Article are fictitious. The offices, unlike the panel lawyers, do not think solely in terms of when is the case next in court. Brooklyn Defender Services had to scramble to find a new, stronger cloud system something many smaller public defense offices and private attorneys contracted for public defense work lack the capacity to do. Instead, her lawyers requested that the court order an Imminent Risk Assessment with the courts mental health clinic once the defense team was convinced that Ms. Barrow would be evaluated to present no risk to her newborn. Had Ms. Barrow not had a team committed to being with her when she gave birth, to preparing assiduously for the conference held when the baby was born, and to being ready to fight for her when the baby was removed less than a week later, her case would surely have come out differently. That knowledge commonly results in the offices achieving better, faster results for their clients than the child welfare agency is capable of, with considerably less disruption of the family, eliminating or significantly shortening the time children are forced to live apart from their families. View job. In fiscal year 2018, the office was assigned to represent more than 1,500 parents with approximately 3,500 children.26 The Neighborhood Defender Service has represented over 1,600 parents between 2014 and 2017.27, This arrangement, assigning a portion of new filings to a family defender law office and the remainder to panel lawyers, created an opportunity to study which kind of representation works best. These factors included demographic characteristics of parents and children, family size, severity of allegations and types of allegations, judge, court borough, and prior involvement with the child welfare system. Brooklyn Defender Services corporate office is located in 177 Livingston St Fl 7, Brooklyn, New York, 11201, United States and has 609 employees. The strategy worked even better than expected. With the housing crisis abated, the rest of the family defense team could keep its focus on the family court case. This Article is dedicated to the outstanding professionals who work in the family defense practices at the Bronx Defenders, the Brooklyn Defender Services, the Center for Family Representation, and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. Dir., Brooklyn Defender Serv. 29. Even though Sophias injury was an accident, court calendars are so backed up that it takes many months from the date of a filing to get to a trial on the facts. Full-time. . The teams social workers worked with Ms. Anderson to identify what she needed to support her child and advised her on what the agency and family court judge would want to see. BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. Yet it was the out-of-court advocacy that made all the difference. Id. American law protects a parents constitutional rights to make critical decisions concerning a childs upbringing, including decisions involving medical care for their children.83 But in my experience, it frequently happens that poor parents are deprived of the same rights accorded to wealthy parents and are charged in court with failing to provide a specific kind of medical care for their child even when the parent is not entirely ignoring his or her childs health needs. Then she engaged a cleaning service to address the roaches and the condition of Ms. Barrows home. We push for equitable and humane policies by advocating for better laws, filing systemic litigation and educating the public. Full-time. The Article proceeds in five parts. If I hadnt had the support of BDS, I wouldnt have been able to stop ACS from removing my kids. For new lawyers, the existence of these organizations means not only jobs, but jobs one can get straight out of law school that come with the kind of training and supervision only larger offices can provide. See About Us, Casey Fam. Senior . The teams lawyer then filed a motion for an immediate court hearing to determine whether removal was necessary to protect the childs safety. According to Tina Luongo, chief attorney for New York City's Legal Aid Society's criminal defense practice, new crime trends . Full-time. The offices help parents negotiate all aspects of the process throughout the life of the case. But no one in the court administration or local government positions in New York had any experience designing or maintaining a legal services delivery system for parents in the child welfare field. Under New York law, the definition of [n]eglected child includes a child less than eighteen years of age (i) whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of his parent or other person legally responsible for his care to exercise a minimum degree of care (A) in supplying the child with adequate . Today, we are the primary provider of legal representation to parents facing the removal of their children to the foster system in Brooklyn Family Court. It's time to renew your membership and keep access to free CLE, valuable publications and more. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. . 71. 14. Generally, family court judges look most favorably upon parents who attend visits frequently and are able to work with the foster care agency to gradually increase the independence of visits from those supervised at the foster care agency to unsupervised overnight visits in the home of the parent. BDS is a public defense office that represents low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. Ms. Green did not provide a clear answer, and she said she wondered whether it happened when Sophia fell off a bed. See N.Y. Fam. Before she left, the defense teams social worker called the caseworkers supervisor requesting that she be permitted to remain in the conference because the x-ray results were due in another half hour. In re Ella B., 285 N.E.2d 288, 290 (N.Y. 1972). Homicide Unit Mitigation Social Worker . Get the inside scoop on jobs, salaries, top office locations, and CEO insights. After family defender offices complained about the problem and lobbied for a solution, the New York City Administration for Childrens Services changed its policy in 2019 in an announced All Staff Bulletin clarifying that If the parent is eligible for coverage, or assistance that they are not receiving, such as Medicaid or private insurance, the CPS or case planner must assist the family with applying for such assistance. Lauren Shapiro has been working as a Managing Director, Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services for 16 years. . Prior to joining the Center, Alice worked as a Staff Attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services' Family Defense Practice, where she represented indigent parents charged with neglect and abuse. The Bronx Defenders was awarded the contract in The Bronx. For most panel lawyers, if a matter is continued on the court calendar for six weeks, the lawyer is able to put the case in a folder and reopen it one or two days before the next court date. Among the most unsettling aspects of child protection intervention in New York City is the practice of the local child protection agency removing newborns from their mothers custody at the hospital. 382 (2019) [hereinafter Accidents Happen]. of 12th graders in Family Foster Care graduated high . 9. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 45. 1012(f). Brooklyn, NY, US. Succinctly summarizing the advantages of the multidisciplinary offices to clients, Chris Gottlieb wrote: For clients, being represented by organizations rather than solo practitioners means having a team on your side: an advocate you can reach on the phone when your lawyer is in court; another lawyer from the office available to step in when yours is on leave or stuck in a different courtroom; the benefit of a brief bank so your lawyer doesnt have to draft every motion from scratch; and office space where your kids can play while you meet with your lawyer. Chris Gottlieb et al., Discovering Family Defense: A History of the Family Defense Clinic at NYU School of Law, 41 N.Y.U. Work Prac., The Bronx Defenders). The clogged courts calendar, however, meant that the court could not conduct the evidentiary hearing immediately. Mr. Sanchez further explained that he did not rule out giving his consent to the surgery, only that he wanted one more time to see if it could be avoided by securing alternative treatment. When Mr. Sanchez met with his lawyers and social worker, he provided the fuller picture. FAMILY DEFENSE. This problem, known as gap of payment for services, meant that parents were substantially delayed in beginning a service because of poverty, resulting in extending the time children remained in foster care. Had Ms. Barrow been evicted from her apartment, she would have had to enter New York Citys public shelter system. Add to those situations the countless cases where, even though the out-of-court advocacy failed to dissuade the agency from filing a petition, the agency was persuaded not to seek a removal of the child. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. 63. Funding for the study was secured from Casey Family Programs,28 one of the leading child welfare foundations in the country committed to supporting practices designed to ensure that children are able to be raised safely in their families of origin.29 An important question the study hoped to learn was whether the kind of legal representation made available to parents would have any impact on reducing the time children spend in foster care.30, The quantitative study was a multiyear study of child welfare cases brought in the New York City courts to determine whether the kind of legal representation provided to parents can make a difference in the outcome of cases.31 The researchers examined child welfare cases filed in New York City Family Court between 2007 and 2014; the final sample involved 9,582 families with 18,288 children.32 They used Propensity Score Matching as the statistical design, which equalized the groups of families compared on nearly twenty factors or covariates split into variables.33 This methodology allowed the researchers to attribute differences in outcomes between the two groups to the type of representation the parents received.34, The study compared the outcome of cases based on whether parents were represented by panel lawyers and parents who were represented by one of the family defender offices.35 Ultimately, the researchers traced the outcomes of nearly 10,000 families and their more than 18,000 children through a four-year follow-up period.36, The study found that the kind of representation afforded to parents makes a dramatic difference in the length of time children spend in foster care.37 Giving parents the right kind of legal team results in families being reunited far sooner than would otherwise happen.38 The family defense offices were able to secure the safe return of children to their families 43 percent more often in their first year than panel attorneys, and 25 percent more often in the second year.39 Giving parents lawyers from family defense offices allowed children to be permanently released to relatives more than twice as often in the first year of a case and 67 percent more often in the second year.40 These families may otherwise have been permanently dissolved or the children may have spent their childhood separated from their family.