From $74,000 a year. Ct. Act 262. medical, dental, optometrical or surgical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so . See National Alliance for Parent Representation, Am. Commn on Parental Legal Representation, N.Y.C. . The strategy worked even better than expected. from Columbia Law School and graduated from Amherst College summa cum laude with a B.A. These criminal justiceoriented officials gave the role of representing parents in child welfare cases to solo practitioners from an assigned panel of available lawyers.10 These lawyers, known colloquially as panel lawyers, were already being used to represent parties eligible for court-assigned counsel in juvenile delinquency proceedings, among a number of other specialized areas of the law.11 These lawyers generally did not work in an interdisciplinary way. 83. 26 days ago. 347-592-2500. . Then the team moved forward on expanding Ms. Barrows access to her older children. Rev. Brooklyn, NY, US. 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. The Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defenders has been representing parents and other caregivers in Family Court since 2007. 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. Our Medically Complicated Team defends parents facing allegations that stem exclusively from a medical opinion. 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. Commn on Hum. Brooklyn Defender Services 4.2. When the doctor requested more x-rays, the caseworker explained that she could not remain for the conference after the tests came back. At the next court date, the defense team presented the letter to the agency and the court. As a result, a second meeting was scheduled with the surgeon, Mr. Sanchezs defense team, and the agency. The teams social worker met with Ms. Barrows medication management provider to develop a plan for re-engaging with her medication upon the birth of the baby. The last 15 months have taken a toll on all of us. An X-ray revealed that Sophia sustained a skull fracture. Serv. When the conference took place one day after the babys birth, the defense teams social worker and parent advocate attended with Ms. Barrow. And once the amount of visits was increased, the next step eventually would be returning Sophia to Ms. Greens custody. Part III briefly describes the findings in the qualitative study. See Id. See Will ACS Take My Child?, N.Y.C. 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 among the most important reforms needed in child welfare once investigations into families are started is to offer the family the services of a committed preventive and reunification service, precisely what the family defenders in New York are. 74. 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. . 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. Brooklyn Defender Services serves communities in the State of New York. 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. Because of Ms. Barrows concern that continuing her medication during her pregnancy was dangerous for the fetus, she stopped taking the medication that was court-ordered. The teams lawyer then filed a motion for an immediate court hearing to determine whether removal was necessary to protect the childs safety. But it simply could not have happened without an interdisciplinary team assigned to the case. 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. One such example involves what should happen when a parent is required to perform a certain service that is covered by Medicaid or other programs when the service provider will not commence the service until the funds are made available to it. Brooklyn, NY. Easily apply. Undeterred by failing to achieve success at the conference, the defense team looked toward the first court appearance as a new opportunity to argue for the newborn to remain in Ms. Andersons custody as well as the first opportunity to leave the judge with a positive impression of the mother. 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. As this case discussion reveals, the amount of out-of-court advocacy involved is well beyond what panel lawyers generally are able to provide or have ever been able to provide in New York Citys history of parental representation. Browse 12 jobs at brooklyn defender services near Brooklyn, NY. 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. When this happened, not only did she visit her children regularly, her defense team succeeded in persuading the judge (over the agencys objection) to permit unsupervised visits, commonly a necessary interim stage before courts will return children to a parents custody. 80. Ms. Green did not provide a clear answer, and she said she wondered whether it happened when Sophia fell off a bed. I think that every parent should have an advocate. 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. Even though Ms. Green had completed all required services and her visitation rights had been substantially expanded, the agency was now arguing that this new injury proved that Ms. Green lacked the capacity to raise her child safely. BDS provides innovative, multi-disciplinary, and client-centered criminal, family, and immigration defense, as well as civil legal Read more about this organization Issue Areas Include Family Immigrants or Refugees Legal Assistance Location Senior . for Child. E communityoffice@bds.org. We find safe, temporary families for children and teens throughout New York City and Long Island. This Article serves to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of how the family defender offices actually do their work, in order to better explain how they achieve the results found by the quantitative study. Because the agency caseworker failed to attend this medical conference, however, the agency continued to insist in court that the surgery was required and assert that the surgeon considered Mr. Sanchezs refusal to consent to the surgery as placing Eduardo at serious risk of harm. On the morning the hearing was to be held, the agency attorney agreed that there no longer was a risk to returning the baby to her mother. Her defense team at first consisted of a family court lawyer and a social worker. 2 (. He gratefully acknowledges the outstanding research assistance provided by Sean Eagan, New York University School of Law Class of 2019, and also thanks Luke Gerber, Chris Gottlieb, Sue Jacobs, Peter Pecora, and Tim Ross for their support and the careful attention they gave to this Article. See Commn on Parental Legal Representation, Interim Report to Chief Judge DiFiore 1215 (2019), http://ww2.nycourts.gov/sites/default/files/document/files/2019-02/PLR_Commission-Report.pdf (discussing history of parental representation in New York State). . 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. See also id. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. N.Y. Soc. 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. 98. Our work with clients is focused on the intersection . (citing N.Y. State Admin. 675(1). See In re Philip M., 624 N.E.2d at 172. Agencies too often offer parents little help or guidance in obtaining services, commonly doing little more than providing a parent an address and expecting the parent to find the service, make the appointment, and wind his or her way through a maze of confusing requirements. Ct. Act 261, 262 (McKinney 2020). As Chris Gottlieb explained: Perhaps most important for staff, these organizations offer the emotional support and grounding needed to do extremely hard work in the trenches: a professional home to go back to after a difficult day in court; knowing your colleagues will listen and understand; being part of a team. 3 TO PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. In 1972, New Yorks highest court ruled that parents have a constitutional right to counsel in child welfare proceedings.7 In 1975, the legislature codified the ruling and created a statutory right to counsel for indigent parents in child welfare proceedings.8 The legislation delegated authority for funding and managing parental representation to the counties.9. His son, Eduardo, suffers from a genetic hip disorder and, as a consequence, he is highly prone to injury. for Family Representation, at 1). Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Experienced Attorney's for the Criminal Practice's legal team. John B. Mattingly, Safety Planning for Newborns or Newly Discovered Children Whose Siblings Are in Foster Care: Child Safety Alert #14 (Revision), N.Y.C. The medications began working after only a few weeks and Ms. Barrow quickly regained her focus. Understanding the Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 4, at 910. Rev. At this point, the court appointed one of the family defender offices to represent Mr. Sanchez. 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.). 58. See N.Y. Fam. Law 424 (McKinney 2020). In re Ella B., 285 N.E.2d 288, 290 (N.Y. 1972). at 14. 61. The agency agreed to settle the case and allow Sophia to be returned to her care if Ms. Green accepted responsibility for the original injury sustained by her daughter (as an act of neglect instead of abuse) with a plan to end entirely supervision of the case in six months if nothing untoward happened during that time. Because the qualitative study focused so much on what the new family defender offices did in court, the case descriptions that follow focus on the out-of-court work that is crucial to the holistic model employed by the offices. Where reunification is not possible, we work to achieve the most favorable resolution possible to preserve the familys bond whenever possible for the benefit of the parent and the child. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services 566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. We work alongside people harmed by unfair systems to fight injustice and change things for the better. 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. BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. 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. 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. 96. See N.Y. Fam. When the agency interviewed her, Ms. Green told the investigators the same thing she told the doctors at the hospital. is a public defense office that provides outstanding representation and advocacy to people facing loss of freedom, family separation and other serious legal harms. View job. 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. Because the new offices ethical duty is to strive to accomplish their clients objectives, and because almost all of their clients want to keep or regain custody of their children as quickly as possible, family defender offices are in the business of trying to achieve the identical objective everyone else in the child welfare field has: keeping children safely with their families and avoiding the needless placement of children into foster care.95, The interdisciplinary approach is recognized as a best practice.96 In 2019, a panel commissioned by Judge Janet DiFiore, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals in New York, recommended an expansion of interdisciplinary law offices from New York City throughout the state of New York due to their success.97, The impact created by high-level law offices devoted to representing parents in child welfare cases goes well beyond the statistics from the study. 99. The Bronx Office was part of a larger organization whose principal work was indigent criminal defense. And by so doing, these defenders improve child welfare practice for everyone: the agencies, the court, and, of course, the families who are brought into the system. They specify the steps an agency must undertake to reunify a family and the tasks the parent must perform as the condition for keeping or regaining custody of his or her child. 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. Clients benefit enormously from having a team represent them.60 Not only does it mean they will not be obliged to attend important meetings alone, but it also means that it is considerably more likely that there will be someone available to speak with them between court appearances and to return their phone calls timely. They also develop training materials to enrich and support the Family Defense Practice. The parent organization employs a large number of poverty lawyers who represent clients in a broad swath of legal matters, including housing, immigration, social security benefits, and custody and divorce, among others. FDP represents over 4,000 parents and caretakers each year in Abuse and Neglect and related cases in Brooklyn Family Court. 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. 24 Public Defender jobs available in Bay Terrace, NY on Indeed.com. All names used throughout this Article are fictitious. 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. This is among the distinguishing characteristics of this kind of daily defense advocacy these offices employ. Admin. Press Inquiries. 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. How, if at all, have they addressed the concerns that led to the initial placement? 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. Brooklyn Defender Services. 18, 428.6 (2020). With the housing crisis abated, the rest of the family defense team could keep its focus on the family court case. 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. Commn on Parental Legal Representation, Interim Report to Chief Judge DiFiore 1215 (2019). For over 50 years, SCO's Foster Care practice has been helping children and their families grow, heal and thrive. The team successfully persuaded the agency to agree to release the newborn to Ms. Barrows care with court-ordered supervision. Of the 135 (35%) cases filed in Family Court, 61 families remained together throughout the investigation and subsequent court filing, the children never removed from their homes. 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 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. In this case, the office was assigned to represent Carlos Sanchez, after a petition was filed by the local child welfare agency accusing him of neglecting his son by failing to consent to what the agency asserted was necessary surgery. The strategy worked. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services177 Livingston Street, 7th FlBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services156 Pierrepont StreetBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. We fight to protect New Yorkers from the trauma of separation from their loved ones and to reunite families as soon as possible. Supervising Attorney, Family Defense Practice - Brooklyn Defenders New York, New York, United States . 14. 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. 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. 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. Approximately 20 percent of the Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice clients are immigrants, and many do not speak English as their first language. 42. 92. Hum. 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. Res. Each of the cases described took place between 2015 and 2018. Had Ms. Barrow been evicted from her apartment, she would have had to enter New York Citys public shelter system. Mr. Sanchez needed a champion for his cause, one who would persuade the surgeon that he was making a reasonable choice that parents have the lawful authority to make. 60. This, in turn, most commonly means focusing on how parents have changed since the case began. Moreover, the amount of time the lawyer put on the case was a minor fraction of the time and attention the social worker gave the case. 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/. 73. In those cases, the parent would not have had anyone to attend the child safety conference with her at the hospital. They communicate frequently with caseworkers to rearrange meetings and services, to plan for the next steps, and for many other reasons. . Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. Admin. FAMILY DEFENSE. Find out what works well at brooklyn defender services from the people who know best. Bar Assn, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/child_law/project-areas/parentrepresentation/ (last visited Oct. 19, 2020). Full-time. Understanding the Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 4, at 7. 32. $65,000 - $87,880 a year. Unfortunately, the foster care worker assigned to Ms. Greens case proved to be very difficult for Ms. Green to work with. Without the offices housing advocacy, Ms. Barrow would have had no home for her newborn to return to. Above all else, what characterizes the differences between the family defender offices and their solo practitioner counterparts in New York City is the purposeful assembly of a holistic team designed to work closely with clients throughout the proceedings. Lawyers Assn, 763 N.Y.S.2d at 407 (finding that because of the rate levels assigned counsel do not . 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. 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. Serv. In these cases, the agency has never met the mother and is brought in to begin a fresh investigation. We are the attorneys and advocates fighting injustice for individuals and families and protecting civil rights for all people. Only six babies (8 percent) were placed in foster care with strangers. Id. 63. Accepting these conditions, Ms. Andersons lawyer requested that the court hold a status conference for the case within the following month to be convened by the judge. . 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. The strategy worked. 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. 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. When Mr. Sanchez told the surgeon that he would not consent to the recommended surgery, the surgeon made a call to the New York Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, which resulted in an investigation being commenced by the local child protection agency.84. In 2013, the Legal Services NYC contract ended, and the South Brooklyn Services Office that was handling the Brooklyn Family Court caseload merged with Brooklyn Defender Services, a preeminent public interest law office with contracts to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases as well as immigration and other matters. Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Emma S. Ketteringham & Caitlin Becker, at 2) [hereinafter Ketteringham & Becker written testimony]. These plans are routinely included in the reports agencies are required to submit every six months whenever children remain in foster care. Office of Research & Analysis, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? This program, known as City FHEPS, is administered by New York Citys Human Resources Administration. N.Y. Comp. Homicide Unit Mitigation Social . 19, 1989). 10. 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. Mr. Sanchez was charged with medical neglect after the agency learned that he refused to consent to surgery to fix his sons hip disorder. The case examples described in the previous section were provided to give the reader some sense of how the defender offices are able to achieve dramatically better results for their clients as compared with the panel members assigned to represent parents. The representation she received simply would have been impossible for most individual panel attorneys to match. Immigration. mediarequests@bds.org. 40592/88, 1989 WL 1715714 (N.Y. Sup. 22. On the judicial side, petitions are filed in family court and the allegations in the petitions are (sometimes) resolved through contested evidentiary hearings. brooklyn defender services bds brooklyn defender service brooklyn defenders family defense practice bds associates inc Brooklyn Defender Services Global Presence Search All Employees The in-the-weeds work holistic practices undertake often leads to outcomes that are invisible when all that is described are data in categories of return to parent, dismiss, and the like. Hearing (Sept. 27, 2018) (written testimony of Ctr. 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.
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