See, e.g., N.Y. Soc. If you are not a current client and need assistance, click here to get help. Prior to joining the faculty at Brooklyn Law School, Professor Lorr was a Supervising Attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice, providing free legal representation to parents at risk of losing their children to foster care. Mr. Sanchez again brought his son to the hospital and, again, Mr. Sanchez informed the treating physician that, rather than consenting to surgery, he intended to take Eduardo back to Mexico for more nonsurgical treatment. 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. Livingston St / Smith St. 347-592-2500. 30+ days ago Full Time. Understanding the Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 4, at 7. 24 Public Defender jobs available in Bay Terrace, NY on Indeed.com. Unfortunately, the foster care worker assigned to Ms. Greens case proved to be very difficult for Ms. Green to work with. Ms. Anderson grew up in foster care, moving through over 20 foster homes as a child. 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. 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. .). 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. Admin. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is one of the largest public defense providers in the United States. Browse 12 jobs at brooklyn defender services near Brooklyn, NY. 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. 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. As the qualitative study revealed, solo practitioners who were interviewed explained that they do not work with their clients out of court and, if matters involving their service plan ever arise, they will speak with the ACS attorney to look into the matter.86 When one solo practitioner was asked, is there any other type of out of court support you provide to your clients, like talking to their landlords or helping them maintain childcare, the simple answer was No, to be honest, no.87, Two people who were the subject of child welfare proceedings in the New York City courts and were represented by several different panel attorneys over the course of several years testified before the New York State Commission on Parental Representation in 2018. 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. Martin Guggenheim is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law. It is here, at the exquisite level of facts, that the defender offices make their greatest difference. This sometimes happens when the mother has no prior involvement with the child welfare system but behaves at the hospital in a manner that leads hospital personnel to call in a report of suspected child abuse. General Inquiries. 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.). Press Inquiries. See Casey Family Programs, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? What follows is their story. 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. 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. 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 N.Y. Fam. 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). Find A Defender; Get Help; Donate; en What do you need help with? Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. Richard LaFontaine. In contrast, the family defender office attorney who worked with the parent during the late stages of her pregnancy is well prepared to advocate on the parents behalf from day one. Then the team moved forward on expanding Ms. Barrows access to her older children. Admin., The CITYFEPS Rent Supplement Program Fact Sheet, N.Y.C. This meant the team not only had to work towards regaining the custody of her two children; it would have to prepare for the possibility that the agency would seek the removal of her newborn. 18, 428.6 (2020). Ms. Barrow disclosed to her defense team that she was pregnant. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking an experienced Attorney for the Custody Practice of the Family Defense Team. For better or for worse, preventing a parent from becoming homeless is not within the portfolio of the agency caseworker (even if it should be). This is among the distinguishing characteristics of this kind of daily defense advocacy these offices employ. Brooklyn Defender Services serves communities in the State of New York. Ms. Green did not provide a clear answer, and she said she wondered whether it happened when Sophia fell off a bed. Brooklyn Defender Services is a company located in Brooklyn, NY, United States. 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. . 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. Emma S. Ketteringham et al., Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies: A Reproductive Justice Response to the Womb-to-Foster-Care Pipeline, 20 CUNY L. Rev. Full-time. See N.Y. County Law 722(3) (McKinney 2020). Even worse, when parents are unrepresented, the plans may fail to identify services the agency should be providing for the particular needs and circumstances of the family. 42. 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. Ct. Act 262. . Such services might include attending parenting skills or anger management classes, or participating in therapy, counseling, or drug treatment programs. At the end of the nine-month period, the case was dismissed. P 646-971-2722. For current information on these offices, see Family Defense Practice, Bronx Defenders, https://www.bronxdefenders.org/our-work/family-defense-practice/ (last visited Oct. 18, 2020); Family Defense, Brooklyn Defender Serv., http://bds.org/practice/family-defense/ (last visited Oct. 18, 2020); Family Defense Teams, Ctr. After hearing these positive developments, the judge set a hearing to be held in one month, signaling that if things continued to go well, the judge would likely return the child then. 65. The father abused her after the babys birth and the agency brought a case against Ms. Anderson for failing to protect her child. Serv. These case summaries were provided by the professionals employed by various family defender offices in New York City. I had never been so scared in my life. In child welfare cases, victories often prove to be short-lived. See N.Y. Cty. We push for equitable and humane policies by advocating for better laws, filing systemic litigation and educating the public. 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. 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. Ketteringham & Becker written testimony, supra note 26, at 8 (emphasis in original). 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. See Paredes v. City of New York, No. Legal Services of New York was awarded the contract in Brooklyn. 8 Brooklyn Defender Services jobs available in Brooklyn, NY on Indeed.com. Brooklyn, NY. See Understanding the Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 4, at 56. Medical neglect is a common charge brought against parents in child welfare cases.82 Depending on the severity of the claimed neglect, the local child welfare agency may be seeking to place the child in foster care to protect the child from the parents failure to provide the child with adequate treatment or, less drastically, to secure court authorization to require that a child have a medical procedure it believes is necessary but that the parent refuses to allow. 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. Law 424 (McKinney 2020). My professional experiences in New York City include founding and co-directing the Family Defense Clinic at New York University School of Law; serving as a Founding Board Member for the Center for Family Representation; being a member of the Board of Advisors for the New York City Administration for Childrens Services from 1996 to 2013; and, most recently, since 2017, serving as a member of the New York State Commission on Parental Legal Representation. The defense team then went into action. The Article ends with the conclusion that those committed to a child welfare system that avoids the needless separation of children from their families should embrace the new family defender model exemplified by the New York City offices whose work is described and celebrated in the Article. 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. They then returned to their permanent residence in New York. at 23 n.179. This kind of advocacy can only be implemented by multiperson offices. 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. Lauren Shapiro has been working as a Managing Director, Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services for 16 years. 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. Founded in 1996, Brooklyn Defender Services operates as a nonprofit organization that provides legal services in the areas of family, civil, criminal, and immigration. These lead to tragic outcomes, such as death at the hands of police or in jail and oppressive environments in schools and neighborhoods where low-income people of color live. Ms. Barrow and the defense team jointly developed a new plan for her that included referring her to a therapist, a psychiatrist who was able to prescribe new medication, and a medication management provider. The goal was to secure evidence from an independent, well-respected therapist that Ms. Green possessed the temperament and capability of raising her child safely. 1. 85. 17. 2019, https://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=208ionid=2&articleid=5378. The agency then filed a neglect petition in family court charging Mr. Sanchez with failing to provide his son with medically necessary treatment and seeking an order that the agency be granted permission to consent to the required surgery. A non-profit public defense office in Brooklyn, New York. Once in court, families often face prolonged separation and years of supervision by the Administration for Children's Services. Caseworkers visit parents in their homes and talk to them and their service providers on a regular basis. 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. for Child. 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. Instead, she would have met her lawyer for the first time minutes before her first hearing, and that lawyer would have to make the argument for the return of her baby knowing only what could be learned in that short time. Very commonly, abuse petitions involving physical injuries to children are filed in the absence of direct evidence concerning how the injury was sustained. 7. 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. Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Emma S. Ketteringham & Caitlin Becker, at 2) [hereinafter Ketteringham & Becker written testimony]. The problem, of course, is that the surgeon would not have written that letter without the very effective advocacy Mr. Sanchezs team brought to the meeting with him. Brooklyn, NY, US. The Bronx Office was part of a larger organization whose principal work was indigent criminal defense. He was kind and understanding. The notes of the interviews are on file with the author. These reviews are essential to the success of reunification efforts. 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. In these cases, the agency has never met the mother and is brought in to begin a fresh investigation. 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. The Center for Family Representation was awarded the contract in New York. Immigration. At the current time, BDS physical offices are open by appointment only. 44. Do you need help accessing benefits or fighting eviction? 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. FDP represents over 4,000 parents and caretakers each year in Abuse and Neglect and related cases in Brooklyn Family Court. Every administrator of New York Citys child welfare system in this century has been committed to the principle of eliminating the unnecessary placement or retention of children in foster care. 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. Admin. Sophia sustained a new facial injury after tripping on a door frame when attending a birthday party at Ms. Greens sisters home while under Ms. Greens supervision. How, if at all, have they addressed the concerns that led to the initial placement? BDS is a public defense office that represents low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. 32. But then, a second intervening event occurred, dramatically changing the entire picture. The third office, the Center for Family Representation (CFR), was a relatively new start-up 501(c)(3) office whose only purpose was to provide legal representation for parents in child welfare cases. Her mother took Sophia to the emergency room. Commn on Parental Legal Representation, N.Y.C. Because Ms. Green was unable to provide a clear explanation for the injury, the hospital called the child protection agency, which immediately began an investigation. Mr. Sanchez took his son to Mexico and completed the treatment. See generally Subha Lembach, The Right to Legal Representation at Service Plan Reviews in New York State, 6 U.C. The prior quantitative and qualitative studies focused exclusively on outcomes of cases and on the views of professionals who see the work of the family defenders in family court. Without the defense teams constant communication with Ms. Barrow and her providers about her service plan, she would not have had the support necessary to achieve the progress in her mental health treatment. 96. 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. What services have they completed? In addition, they must be reviewed periodically and formally retained to remain active members of the panel. After the baby was born, the agency convened the anticipated child safety conference. 58. Res. Countless aspects of practice have been improved through these macro advocacy efforts, none of which had ever been undertaken twenty years ago.98 To provide some perspective, without intending to give the defender community too much credit for the results, the foster care population in New York City has shrunk to an astonishing degree over the past twenty years (a trend not followed nationally). 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. The hospital then called Ms. Green and asked her what she could tell them. They help their clients persevere what is otherwise a long, lonely, and frightening journey by staying in close, regular contact with them. 8. Ms. Barrow was assigned a family defender office. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 45. Martin Guggenheim, New Study Shows Providing Parents with Multidisciplinary Legal Representation in Child Welfare Cases Furthers Everyones Interests, 20 Child.s Bureau Express no. The teams lawyer then filed a motion for an immediate court hearing to determine whether removal was necessary to protect the childs safety. Brooklyn Defender Services. Easily apply. 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. . Although the agency does not permit lawyers to attend these conferences, it does allow parents to bring anyone else to be present. 28. Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice Main Industry Manufacturing, Test & Measurement Equipment Website www.bfdp.org Contact Information Headquarters 195 Montague St Fl 5, Brooklyn, New York, 11201, United States (347) 592-2500 Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice Profile and History Natl Council of Juv. 27. In those situations, there is no way to give credit to the kind of legal representation the parent was given when comparing outcomes of cases between those handled by panel lawyers and multidisciplinary offices. $68,640 a year. The agency sent an investigating caseworker to meet with Eduardos teachers at school. 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 strategy worked. If you are arrested, face deportation, or your children are threatened with the foster system, you can rely on us to fight for you. Dir., Brooklyn Defender Serv. 12. 76. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 5253. Instead, the agency has conducted the conferences within a day or two after a newborns birth, at a time when the mother is not in a position to participate effectively. Child welfare cases are prosecuted along two tracks: the judicial and the administrative. That is what it prepared for when it represented Ms. Anderson. Since it began, the Brooklyn Defender Services' Family Defense Practice has represented nearly 11,000 parents involving more than 20,000 children. 69. 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. Had Ms. Barrow been evicted from her apartment, she would have had to enter New York Citys public shelter system. Apply to Staff Attorney, Family Medicine Physician, Project Supervisor and more! These conferences are expected to take place in front of the judges court attorney, rather than the judge, and are commonly used to provide a forum to resolve issues and move toward settlement. 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. $65,000 - $87,880 a year. Mr. Sanchez brought Eduardo to a public hospital for medical attention. 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. Similarly, preventing a parent from being removed from the country for an immigration-related reason is also beyond what agency caseworkers do.92 But real-life events such as these must be given the highest possible priority if parents are to achieve their objective of regaining the custody of their children from foster care.