Services Provided:NA Specialties: Other Address: 195 Montague Street, 5th Floor, is Brooklyn, is New York 11201 Phone: (347) 592-2500 Email: lshapiro@bfdp.bds.org . Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Emma S. Ketteringham & Caitlin Becker, at 2) [hereinafter Ketteringham & Becker written testimony]. 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. 22. info@bds.org. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 53. The lack of out-of-court work that characterizes panel attorney legal representation in New York City goes well beyond leaving parents to fend for themselves in emotionally challenging meetings such as family team conferences and case planning conferences. medical, dental, optometrical or surgical care, though financially able to do so or offered financial or other reasonable means to do so . The medications began working after only a few weeks and Ms. Barrow quickly regained her focus. Over the many years of doing this work, the four offices that have contracts to represent parents in child welfare cases in New York City have developed and refined innovative approaches to secure the safe return of children from foster care. Rts., Your Rights While Pregnant, Breastfeeding, or Caregiving: A Report on the 2019 Commission Public Hearing on Pregnancy and Caregiver Discrimination 14 (2019), https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/downloads/pdf/publications/Pregnancy_Report.pdf. 97. At the end of the six months, the case was dismissed. BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. 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. In re Ella B., 285 N.E.2d 288, 290 (N.Y. 1972). 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. Article 10 Attorney for the Family Defense Practice Team. 30+ days ago Full Time. P (718) 254-0700; F (718) 254-0897; E info@bds.org; Facebook; Twitter; These reviews are essential to the success of reunification efforts. 42 U.S.C. Serv. 79. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn Defender Services is part of the Law Firms & Legal Services industry, and located in New York, United States. at 23 n.179. 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. Founded in 1996, Brooklyn Defender Services operates as a nonprofit organization that provides legal services in the areas of family, civil, criminal, and immigration. 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. Beginning that year, the Office funded a new model of public defense for families facing charges of abuse or neglect in three counties in New York City. The representation she received simply would have been impossible for most individual panel attorneys to match. Commn on Parental Legal Representation, N.Y.C. Ct. Without the surgeons letter, the case almost certainly would have ended with the court ordering the surgery in a legal proceeding that would have lingered for months. As her due date neared, the defense team turned its focus to planning with Ms. Barrow for the babys arrival. . 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. 68. For MAil . Law 409-e(2) (McKinney 2020) (mandating preparation of case plans by the social services district in active consultation with the childs parent or guardian). Res. Are you or someone you know being investigated by the police or ACS? 6 days ago. Are you concerned that you or someone you know may be arrested by ICE? The agency sent an investigating caseworker to meet with Eduardos teachers at school. Without Ms. Anderson having the team working with her, she would be expected to attend this conference alone with agency caseworkers and supervisors. 8. The Bronx Defenders was awarded the contract in The Bronx. According to Tina Luongo, chief attorney for New York City's Legal Aid Society's criminal defense practice, new crime trends . 1337, 133839 (2012). Visit Us . 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. 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. Your membership has expired - last chance for uninterrupted access to free CLE and other benefits. Hearing (Aug. 16, 2018) (written testimony of Lisa Schreibersdorf, Exec. Programs, https://www.casey.org/who-we-are/about/ (last visited Oct. 18, 2020). 9. Popular Searches Brooklyn Defender Services Bds Simultaneously, Ms. Greens attorneys and the social work staff worked closely together to help Ms. Green navigate the agencys service and visitation policies. After the social worker advocated for Mr. Sanchez with the medical team at the hospital, and after thoroughly going through the options available, the medical team better understood why Mr. Sanchez preferred to choose the less-invasive nonoperative treatment one more time before performing an invasive surgical procedure that does not carry with it any guarantee of ameliorating the hip condition. In Queens and Richmond County (Staten Island), no change to the legal representation landscape occurred at that time. 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 clogged courts calendar, however, meant that the court could not conduct the evidentiary hearing immediately. This, in turn, most commonly means focusing on how parents have changed since the case began. Commn on Hum. Alice received her J.D. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 43. 30+ days ago. of 12th graders in Family Foster Care graduated high . The teams strategy was to have two opportunities to present the judge with positive impressions of the mother even before conducting the formal hearing seeking the babys return to her custody. In addition, they must be reviewed periodically and formally retained to remain active members of the panel. The strategy worked even better than expected. 718-564-6290. The ongoing relationship may mean the mother became pregnant during the pendency of an ongoing court case (a frequent occurrence). In the weeks leading up to the status conference, Ms. Anderson and the team worked to ensure she was able to attend all visits with her daughter, that she completed the mental health evaluation the judge requested, and that her service providers were serving her well. Add to those situations the countless cases where, even though the out-of-court advocacy failed to dissuade the agency from filing a petition, the agency was persuaded not to seek a removal of the child. Despite agreeing to attend the meeting, however, the agency caseworker never came to the meeting. 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. The final order terminating her parental rights was entered a mere six weeks before Ms. Anderson, now in the late stages of her pregnancy, met with social workers at the unit. The Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defenders has been representing parents and other caregivers in Family Court since 2007. On the judicial side, petitions are filed in family court and the allegations in the petitions are (sometimes) resolved through contested evidentiary hearings. When Mr. Sanchez met with his lawyers and social worker, he provided the fuller picture. Easily apply. 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. Had Ms. Barrow not had a team committed to being with her when she gave birth, to preparing assiduously for the conference held when the baby was born, and to being ready to fight for her when the baby was removed less than a week later, her case would surely have come out differently. 89. Each of the cases described took place between 2015 and 2018. is a public defense office that provides outstanding representation and advocacy to people facing loss of freedom, family separation and other serious legal harms. 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. 6, July/Aug. 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. 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. No case is filed; no court time is taken up; no court personnel are assigned to the matter. FAMILY DEFENSE. See generally Subha Lembach, The Right to Legal Representation at Service Plan Reviews in New York State, 6 U.C. 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. 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. Noran attended and graduated from CUNY School of Law where she worked with CLEAR to counter post-9/11 policies . The offices also are likely to have expertise in immigration, housing, and criminal court practice, areas of the law in which their clients are likely to become involved. Ct. Apr. 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. Supervising Attorney, Family Defense Practice - Brooklyn Defenders New York, New York, United States . Admin., The CITYFEPS Rent Supplement Program Fact Sheet, N.Y.C. 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. Once again, Ms. Barrows defense team went into action. The Bronx Office was part of a larger organization whose principal work was indigent criminal defense. 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. 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. Many of those changes need to happen upstream from the time and place children are reported to child welfare officials as being at risk of harm. See Will ACS Take My Child?, N.Y.C. 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/. 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. 384-b(7)(f)(1). Then she engaged a cleaning service to address the roaches and the condition of Ms. Barrows home. mediarequests@bds.org. Once parents had the right to counsel in child welfare proceedings, it fell to the local New York City court administrators to design the legal services delivery system to meet this new constitutional and statutory right. We fight to protect New Yorkers from the trauma of separation from their loved ones and to reunite families as soon as possible.