make applications for investigators or other experts where appropriate . Lauren Shapiro has been working as a Managing Director, Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services for 16 years. The representation she received simply would have been impossible for most individual panel attorneys to match. The goal of our early intervention is to avoid court filings that have a harsh impact on families. The Brooklyn Officethe Brooklyn Family Defense Projectwas a project of the largest civil legal services organization in New York City, Legal Services for New York, now Legal Services NYC. Our Preserving Family Bonds team enhances the representation we provide to clients at the later stages of a case, including termination of parental rights, should a parent be faced with this possibility. Each of the three offices had a distinct corporate structure. As her due date neared, the defense team turned its focus to planning with Ms. Barrow for the babys arrival. Admin. . 1. He was just what we needed in a lawyer. This case, however, reveals how meaningful efforts by the parents defender team to understand the family and the childs medical condition changed the cases course, without the need to litigate, to call witnesses, or to rely on the court to do anything more than enter an order that all parties ultimately preferred, once the full details of the case were exposed.
Brooklyn Defender Services - Employees, Contact info, Overview - Wiza Admin., The CITYFEPS Rent Supplement Program Fact Sheet, N.Y.C. This dedicated team works closely with parents to achieve family reunification even when their children have been in the foster system for a long time. The unit is staffed by trained social workers with deep experience negotiating the complexities of child welfare investigations during the time a woman is pregnant and immediately after she gives birth. 81. 96. The family defender office assigned to represent Ms. Green handles many of these cases each year and has become expert both in cross-examining medical experts called by the agency and at engaging and communicating with knowledgeable physicians able to provide their expert medical opinion on whether an injury is more likely to be the consequence of abuse or an accident. Codes R. & Regs. Full-time.
BDS | Family Defense for Child. 67.
Brooklyn public defenders seek to form union - nydailynews.com Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. 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. The previous studies limited their focus to quantitative outcomes achieved at court or to reporting the views of stakeholders focused on the differences between the two kinds of representation made available to parents in New York City.58 This Article starts where the prior two articles left off.
Lauren Shapiro - Practising Law Institute - PLI Press Inquiries. . When the case was first filed in court, the judge only permitted Ms. Green twice-weekly supervised visits at the foster care agencya sterile environment unconducive to an engaging opportunity for parents and children to maintain ties. 95. Our team of attorneys, paralegals, advocates, social workers and administrative staff provide a broad range of family defense representation, advocacy and support. 89. Without Ms. Anderson having the team working with her, she would be expected to attend this conference alone with agency caseworkers and supervisors. (June 5, 2008), https://perma.cc/L2CZ-Z64X. Commn on Parental Legal Representation, Interim Report to Chief Judge DiFiore 1215 (2019). for Family Representation, at 1). What the previous articles did not disclose in any depth is what is actually involved in representing parents in child welfare cases and what the staff do in individual cases. The investigator also met with Eduardos primary care physician, but not with the orthopedic surgeon. In those counties, the only legal representation afforded to parents in these proceedings was the assignment of solo practitioners who were members of the assigned counsel panel of attorneys eligible for court assignment. Instead of the family being reunited, the case might have resulted in a termination of parental rights. Law 424 (McKinney 2020). 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. Even when the defenders were unsuccessful in preventing a case from being filed in court, the defender office was already familiar with the facts of the case and had a relationship with the parent. Ct. Act 1039 (McKinney 2020). Office of Research & Analysis, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? Unless otherwise noted, the discussion in this Article concerning the history and practice of parental representation in New York City is based on my own experience and knowledge from almost fifty years of working in this area as a litigator, clinical professor, scholar, policy advocate, and board member and advisor for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Entry Level Attorney Candidates for the Family Defense team. 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 first article, Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Parental Representation in Child Welfare, was published in 2019.1 It described the results of a multiyear study in New York City that compared the outcomes of child welfare cases in which parents were represented by multidisciplinary family defender offices with cases in which parents were represented by solo practitioners assigned from a rotating panel of lawyers.2 The outcomes were dramatically better in cases handled by these offices, as measured by the reduced amount of time children were kept from their parents custody as compared with parents whose lawyers were solo practitioners.3 The second article was a qualitative analysis that described the interviews conducted of a wide group of professionals and former clients who work closely with the two different kinds of legal representation models that were compared.4 That article revealed the opinions of a broad range of professionals working in the courts on what distinguishes the family defender offices practice from the work done by panel lawyers.5. Easily apply. . These reviews are essential to the success of reunification efforts. 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. Very commonly, abuse petitions involving physical injuries to children are filed in the absence of direct evidence concerning how the injury was sustained.
Family Defense Practice Seeks Entry Level Attorney Candidates Today (A.B.A., June 4, 2019), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/child_law/resources/child_law_practiceonline/january---december-2019/providing-parents-multidisciplinary-legal-representation-signifi/. Our team is able to navigate the science, medical diagnosis and documentation, retain appropriate medical experts, and contest the validity of some of the questionable science that leads to diagnoses that in turn lead to family separation. The family defender offices met regularly over the first decade of practice to strategize how to challenge unacceptable practices engaged in routinely by child welfare agencies. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. At the end of the nine-month period, the case was dismissed. brooklyn defender services bds brooklyn defender service brooklyn defenders family defense practice bds associates inc Brooklyn Defender Services Global Presence Search All Employees For another 82 (22%) parents, the investigations are ongoing but to date ACS has not filed a case alleging neglect or abuse.
Brooklyn Defender Services: Employee Directory | ZoomInfo.com See Will ACS Take My Child?, N.Y.C. Before going to housing court, the defender offices housing specialist contacted the City office that was providing the rental subsidy to explain the problem and was able to get the office to write an additional check to her landlord to eliminate all arrears on her rent. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 43. 71. This Article is designed to bring to life the proactive nature of the multidisciplinary practice. Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Emma S. Ketteringham & Caitlin Becker, at 2) [hereinafter Ketteringham & Becker written testimony]. An ill-advised case plan not only wastes money; it wastes the most precious commodity in the field: time. See Mark E. Courtney & Jennifer L. Hook, Evaluation of the Impact of Enhanced Parental Legal Representation on the Timing of Permanency Outcomes for Children in Foster Care, 34 Child. P 646-971-2722. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 4546. 64. In Queens and Richmond County (Staten Island), no change to the legal representation landscape occurred at that time. Thousands of families face the possibility of separation due to a wide range of circumstances, mostly stemming from poverty, lack of stable housing or child care, mental health or health diagnoses or intellectual disabilities. See N.Y. Fam. We work alongside people harmed by unfair systems to fight injustice and change things for the better. If the study discussions in the previous section show anything, it is that being at the table when the agency fashions the case plan is a critical stage in the proceeding with profound long-term implications for all that follows. Brooklyn residents are harmed and impacted by government policies and practices that fuel mass incarceration and the destruction of families. Rev. Yet it was the out-of-court advocacy that made all the difference. J. Juv. It is impossible to wholly disentangle the many interrelated factors that affect how many children are in foster care at any given time, but there is little doubt the outstanding work of the family defenders, both in the courtroom and at high-level policy meetings, has contributed to the continued shrinking of New York Citys foster care population. See Casey Family Programs, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? Once the report was provided to the court, the judge ordered that the newborn be returned to Ms. Barrows custody in light of the risk assessment and proof that the conditions in her apartment were vastly improved. Among jurisdictions other than New York City that have been national leaders and innovators in parent representation is Washington State under the leadership of Joanne Moore. 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. The strategy worked. [or] ensure that clients receive necessary services and prepare appropriate service plans . Finally, in Part V, the Article clarifies the leading characteristics of successful parent representation in child welfare cases with a particular emphasis on proactive representation out of court. 20. These team members support the families they serve in everything from applying for public benefits to representing a client in criminal court to finding employment training, mental health counseling, and substance abuse treatment. 32. BDS is a public defense office that represents low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. Even when the outcome of cases like this do not involve termination of parental rights or placement for an extended period in foster care, these cases should be viewed as an extremely important example of a clash between the right of parents to make the important decisions regarding their childrens upbringing and the states independent power to make decisions for children over a parents objection. There are too many heroes in those offices to name here; this Article is a celebration of the remarkable work they do every day supporting and fighting for justice for the many parents living in poverty who have to endure the coercive intervention of the child welfare system. Emma S. Ketteringham et al., Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: A Reproductive Justice Response to the Womb-to-Foster-Care Pipeline, 20 CUNY L. Rev. As Ms. Barrow and her defense team were making these strides, two intervening actions were taking place, either of which had the potential to negatively impact the prospects of a successful outcome. Rev. It is used whenever the office is representing a mother who becomes pregnant during the course of the case, whether she already is court-involved or not. The plan was to update the judge on Ms. Andersons progress and to request that the court schedule a formal hearing to determine if it still was necessary to keep the baby in foster care. . Less than a year later, Eduardo sustained another injury in his hip.
BDS | Home It also means that parents represented by panel attorneys almost never are able to benefit from creating pushback by their legal team to reshape a proposed case plan to better address the particular needs of each client.
brooklyn defender services Careers and Employment | Indeed.com The court ordered the children to be placed in foster care at the first court appearance and limited the mothers access to them to twice-weekly visits supervised at the agency. Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. See id. . He was kind and understanding.
Brooklyn Defender Services | New York NY - Facebook In 2003, a New York State Supreme Court Justice found that the payment rates for assigned counsel resulted in a shortage of panel attorneys and deprived litigants of effective assistance of counsel.12 Panel lawyers would rarely engage the services of a social worker and have their fees paid by the court.13 These lawyers spent virtually their entire professional time in the courtroom, waiting either for a new assignment or for their cases to be called.14 As a result, they were rarely available to their clients out of court.15 Half of court-assigned lawyers billed for less than five hours of out-of-court work in family court proceedings.16. Since the family defender offices opened in 2007 in New York City, the community whose children have been wrested from poor families has had a collective voice in the form of lobbying efforts by the newly created family defender advocates. Brooklyn Defender Services is part of the Law Firms & Legal Services industry, and located in New York, United States. As the field continues to improve, all parents should be given lawyers working in an interdisciplinary practice. Among the reasons it is crucial that parent defenders actively participate in these conferences is that when an inappropriate case plan is developed, that plan may be in place for many months even before a court might review it. 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. The medications began working after only a few weeks and Ms. Barrow quickly regained her focus. at 14. BDS provides innovative, multi-disciplinary, and client-centered criminal, family, and immigration defense, as well as civil legal services, social work support and advocacy, for tens of thousands of clients in Brooklyn every year. A case like this would not even show up in the results found in the quantitative study, which focused on the length of time children remain in foster care and other outcomes of cases. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 53. Our Law & Appeals attorneys work on special legal proceedings, including appeals and special motions in family court. See N.Y.C. When the doctor requested more x-rays, the caseworker explained that she could not remain for the conference after the tests came back. Once in court, families often face prolonged separation and years of supervision by the Administration for Children's Services. In addition, they must be reviewed periodically and formally retained to remain active members of the panel.
Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice Admin. 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. At the end of the six months, the case was dismissed. Entry Level Attorneys - Criminal Practice legal team . Ultimate success in many cases can be achieved by creating and developing plans designed to keep children safely at homeor to return them home as soon as can safely be accomplishedand by pushing hard for the plans prompt implementation. The units signal distinction is making sure that someone from the defense team is present at the hospital when the baby is born and is available to participate in all meetings the agency will arrange to discuss the plan. 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. But often the agency seeks to remove newborns from the hospital in a case in which the agency has an ongoing involvement with the mother. Need assistance with an ACS investigation or court case. 83. Once these favorable reports were introduced, the team focused on settling the case instead of undergoing a highly contested trial focused on whether the original injury was sustained as a result of an accident. Criminal, Family, Immigration and Civil Defense. Disclosing the news of her pregnancy and her decision to stop taking the court-ordered medication was an extremely delicate action risking not only her right to continue visiting with her children but losing custody of the newborn upon birth. tit. See N.Y. County Law 722(3) (McKinney 2020). It's time to renew your membership and keep access to free CLE, valuable publications and more. Our Medically Complicated Team defends parents facing allegations that stem exclusively from a medical opinion. Hum. In late 2016, Ms. Barrow, the parent of a ten-year-old child and a one-year-old child, was charged in family court with neglect resulting from her struggle to manage the challenges of mental illness and a cognitive disability.68 The petition was filed shortly after she was discharged from a short-term hospitalization for mental health treatment. 42.
SCO Family of Services Recognized by Brooklyn Defender Services for Full-time. Skip to main content. Ct. Act 1089 (McKinney 2020). Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. In those cases, the parent would not have had anyone to attend the child safety conference with her at the hospital. 30+ days ago Full Time. Beginning cautiously, New York City first awarded separate contracts for three of its five counties to three different not-for-profit organizations, each one authorized to accept court assignments in one county. Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Lisa Schreibersdorf, Exec. See National Alliance for Parent Representation, Am. at 3940 (oral testimony of Caitlin Becker, MSW, Managing Dire., Soc. Apply to Social Worker, Social Work Supervisor, Staff Attorney and more! 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. 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. 30+ days ago Full Time. If you are not a current client and need assistance, click here to get help. There is no question that the in-court advocacy engaged in by the family defender offices is of a much higher order than that practiced by the panel lawyers, as the qualitative study attests. 22.
Hochul's Budget Pads Prosecution Without Match for Public Defense Without the offices housing advocacy, Ms. Barrow would have had no home for her newborn to return to. If Mr. Sanchezs lawyer had been a very good solo practitioner from the court-assigned panel, he would have advised Mr. Sanchez to get the surgeon to write a letter saying that Mr. Sanchezs preference to take his son to Mexico for another try at nonsurgical treatment was reasonable. When Ms. Barrow went to housing court, her housing attorney presented a letter showing the Citys commitment to pay the arrears, and the case was settled in Ms. Barrows favor. What insights have they gained? If you are arrested, face deportation, or your children are threatened with the foster system, you can rely on us to fight for you. Rts., Your Rights While Pregnant, Breastfeeding, or Caregiving: A Report on the 2019 Commission Public Hearing on Pregnancy and Caregiver Discrimination, N.Y. State Admin. The study was the first of its kind ever conducted, although two previous studies were undertaken in Washington State that compared cases in which parents were represented by a new Parent Representation Program with the outcomes of cases in which parents were represented by traditional parent lawyers. In order for the reader to appreciate fully the contribution of these offices, and the critical need for them to spread throughout the country, it is vital that the reader grasp a fundamental truth about the child welfare system in the United States: it far too commonly makes fateful decisions about children and families that are based on errors that, in the absence of a significant check and balance provided by holistic family defenders, would never come to light. To provide even a sense of the breadth of this work, the Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice litigates more than forty emergency hearings each month (or about 500 a year) to keep children home or have them returned from foster care sooner than the agency is prepared to allow. What services have they completed? Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Experienced Attorney's for the Criminal Practice's legal 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. The notes of the interviews are on file with the author. Because Ms. Green could not say with certainty what caused the skull fracture, the defense team relied on an expert who analyzed the X-rays and determined that they were fully consistent with an accidental fall, thus providing the needed evidence that Sophias injury was not necessarily the result of abuse. And once the amount of visits was increased, the next step eventually would be returning Sophia to Ms. Greens custody. The petition alleged that the skull fracture could only have been the result of child abuse and Ms. Greens failure to provide a sufficient explanation for the injury justified placing Sophia in foster care. At the next court date, the defense team presented the letter to the agency and the court. One such case involved the representation by one of the family defender offices. BDS attorneys, social workers, paralegals, investigators and administrative professionals have an unwavering commitment to the people we represent. Our team works to find temporary custody arrangements, refute false allegations and help inform parents of their rights at early stages of an ACS investigation about their family. Caseworkers are a critical player in each case. See id. This is the third in a series of articles discussing the results of child welfare cases in which parents in New York City were represented by a new form of legal services provision: family defender offices whose staff include social workers, parent advocates, and lawyers. Admin. .). It added over the years an immigration practice and, in 2007, with this new contract, a family defense practice as well. In response to persistent advocacy, the agency agreed to permit the visits to take place in a more hospitable environment so long as the visits were supervised by Ms. Greens mother.