.). Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. The father abused her after the babys birth and the agency brought a case against Ms. Anderson for failing to protect her child. Our attorneys, social workers and other staff work together to advise, assist and represent parents every step of the way. It requires more professionals and more room than solo law practices. Several days after Ms. Barrow was permitted to bring her baby home with her from the hospital, the agency removed the infant and placed her in foster care after a caseworker visited the apartment and found it to be excessively dirty and filled with cockroaches. Full-time. Brooklyn Defender Services177 Livingston Street, 7th FlBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services156 Pierrepont StreetBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. for Family Representation, at 1). And when trouble brews and the local newspapers criticize government officials for failing to protect a child from harm (an unavoidable part of this work), the defender community actively participates in supporting the relatively low foster care population. Because the bump did not immediately appear on Sophias head, Ms. Green could not be certain how the injury was sustained. And once the amount of visits was increased, the next step eventually would be returning Sophia to Ms. Greens custody. Skip to main content. They also reveal the critical importance of addressing the needs of clients concerning matters beyond the child welfare system itself. Three months later, the two children in foster care were reunited with their mother and the family has lived together without further intervention by the agency. Missing from the quantitative study are the number of times out-of-court advocacy persuades the local child welfare agency not to file a court case in the first place. Ct. Act 1046(a)(ii) (McKinney 2020) ([P]roof of injuries sustained by a child or of the condition of a child of such a nature as would ordinarily not be sustained or exist except by reason of the acts or omissions of the parent or other person responsible for the care of such child shall be prima facie evidence of child abuse or neglect, as the case may be, of the parent or other person legally responsible.). Id. 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. He was kind and understanding. Brooklyn, NY 11201. & Fam. Along the path of the case, courts typically order that parents perform various services63 and ultimately order that children be allowed to remain with their families or be placed in another arrangement. (citing N.Y. State Admin. The goal of our early intervention is to avoid court filings that have a harsh impact on families. Prior to joining If/When/How, Noran began her legal career as a public defender in 2018 at Brooklyn Defender Services in the Family Defense practice representing parents and families who were impacted by the family regulation system. 347-592-2500. Part II briefly describes the findings in the quantitative analysis. Our staff of 300 includes 180 attorneys as well as social workers, investigators, paralegals, re-entry specialists, jail liaisons, education, community organizers and policy specialists. Brooklyn Defender Services Aug 2017 - Aug 2019 2 years 1 month. The offices social work team, along with the Brooklyn Defender Services immigration practitioners, have developed close relationships with community-based programs serving New Yorks immigrant communities and [are] able to connect clients to culturally competent service providers and access to services in their native language. Schreibersdorf & Shapiro written testimony, supra note 24, at 9. of BDS' family defense clients were reunited with their children at the conclusion of their family court case. Res. With the positive evaluation from the court mental health clinic and letters the team gathered from Ms. Barrows service providers, the judge agreed to allow the children to return home for overnight visits, commonly a crucial step that leads to the eventual return of children to their parents custody. at 3940 (oral testimony of Caitlin Becker, MSW, Managing Dire., Soc. In an effort to settle the case promptly, the defense team requested a court conference where they explained to the agency attorney and caseworker, as well as Eduardos court-appointed lawyer, what transpired since the petition was filed. But those studies included comparisons between counties (some of which had the program and some of which did not) in addition to comparisons within counties (pre- and post-implementation of the new model). Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. The offices help parents negotiate all aspects of the process throughout the life of the case. The social worker, fluent in English and Spanish, also served as a translator for Mr. Sanchez whose primary language is Spanish and whose command of English is limited. The agency sent an investigating caseworker to meet with Eduardos teachers at school. Brooklyn Defender Services is part of the Law Firms & Legal Services industry, and located in New York, United States. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 5253. New York law does not require that the agency prove how certain injuries were sustained.71 Instead, when the injuries appear to be the result of abuse, it is sufficient for the agency to allege that the child sustained an injury that most likely was the result of child abuse, creating a rebuttable presumption where the parent may present evidence either proving how the injury was sustained or why the parent should not be held legally accountable for the injury.72 When a petition alleges no direct evidence of abuse, but rather that the nature of the injury is such that it must have been the result of abuse, parents and attorneys are placed in a difficult position. Brooklyn, NY. 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. Immigration. She asked her mother to take Sophia to see a doctor because Ms. Green had to be at work. Richard LaFontaine. 2 (updated July 2019), https://caseyfamilypro-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/media/SF_Quality-parent-representation_fnl.pdf; see also Martin Guggenheim & Susan Jacobs, Providing Parents Multidisciplinary Legal Representation Significantly Reduces Childrens Time in Foster Care, Child L. Prac. It set up a meeting with the surgeon and invited the child protection agency to attend so that it could hear the more complete picture. $68,640 a year. The agency was unwilling to accept the defense teams claims without doing its own investigation. 62. Id. For most parents, this conference, occurring at one of the most emotionally laden moments of their lives, and which will fatefully determine whether they will be allowed to bring their child home with them from the hospital, is something they endure alone without representation or support. The social workers on Ms. Greens defense team tapped into their knowledge of local community resources and helped Ms. Green find accessible services that would fit into her busy school and work schedule. & Lauren Shapiro, Dir., Family Def. Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem shares cases in New York County with the Center for Family Representation, and the Center for Family Representation has a second contract to provide parental representation in Queens. Brooklyn Defender Services is a public defense office whose mission is to provide outstanding representation and advocacy free of cost to people facing loss of freedom, family separation. 30+ days ago Full Time. is a public defense office that provides outstanding representation and advocacy to people facing loss of freedom, family separation and other serious legal harms. Hum. In many cases when parents are well-represented at the administrative level, what happens in court is anti-climacticthe outcome of all that went before at the agency meetings. Part IV, the heart of the Article, describes accounts of actual cases undertaken by this new breed of family defenders, to help explain their superior ability to achieve the objectives of keeping children safely with their families. In sharing some of these accounts, the reader should pay particular attention to the frequency with which investigators from the child welfare agencies make mistakes, get facts wrong, fail to show up for critical meetings, or base recommendations on faulty information that is either flatly wrong or materially incomplete. When the new tests were made available to the surgeon later that day, he continued to support Mr. Sanchezs plan for treating his son. The teams lawyer then filed a motion for an immediate court hearing to determine whether removal was necessary to protect the childs safety. At the end of the nine-month period, the case was dismissed. Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. At her conference, Ms. Anderson was accompanied by a parent advocate who had lived the child welfare experience and a social worker from the defender office who carefully laid out the details of the efforts Ms. Anderson had undertaken in recent weeks. Instead, in New York City, the task was given to the Mayors Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator, which had deep knowledge of the criminal justice system but no experience with the child welfare system. 18. Instead, the judge told Ms. Anderson that it would be in her interest for her to agree to undergo a mental health evaluation and to cooperate with the agency over the coming weeks. Although impressed by all the work Ms. Anderson and her team had begun, the agency nonetheless was unwilling to allow Ms. Anderson to go home with her baby. Brooklyn Defender Services 566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. If you are arrested, face deportation, or your children are threatened with the foster system, you can rely on us to fight for you. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Experienced Attorney's for the Criminal Practice's legal team. However, Ms. Anderson progressed so well that the hearing never needed to be conducted. L TO LIVONIA AVENUE. . Brooklyn Defenders provides a wide range of services, including assisting people who are facing an investigation, providing legal representation to people who are brought to court and helping to clear the records of people from databases that impact employment. She was facing eviction after she had fallen into rental arrears for six months because she was under the mistaken understanding that the rental subsidy she recently secured from New York City covered her entire rent.69 In fact, she was responsible for the portion not covered by the subsidy. Social hold is a colloquial term used to describe the practice of a hospital separating new parents from their child immediately following birth while a report to the State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment or an ACS investigation is pending. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Public Hearings 38 (Sept. 27, 2018), http:/nycourts.gov/ip/Parental-Legal-Rep/PDFs/NYCPublicHearing9-27-18_F.pdf (oral testimony of Jeanette Vega, Training Dir., RISE). The strategy worked even better than expected. The social worker helped facilitate a more complete understanding between Mr. Sanchez and the hospitals medical team. What follows are case examples of how the offices achieved great success for their clients.67 They are offered both to bring to life how the offices do their work and why everyone committed to a better-functioning child welfare system should want offices like this practicing throughout the country. They also develop training materials to enrich and support the Family Defense Practice. Part I provides a brief history of parental representation in New York. See In re Philip M., 624 N.E.2d at 172. 97. These plans are best developed out of court in conjunction with the agency overseeing the case.64 No good lawyer can afford to ignore the administrative process, which commonly begins when a family comes to the attention of an investigating caseworker following a report of suspected maltreatment made to the child protection agency. In Queens and Richmond County (Staten Island), no change to the legal representation landscape occurred at that time. Until such assistance is available, the CPS or case planner must ensure that appropriate services are provided, including payment for such services. N.Y.C. 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. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. But it simply could not have happened without an interdisciplinary team assigned to the case.