One parent told the Commission she attended between twelve and fifteen conferences over a three-year period, and in every instance, she attended them alone.88 The second parent testified that she attended between twelve and eighteen such conferences over a longer period of time.89 She, too, was never accompanied by anyone to a conference.90 By way of comparison, the social work director at one of the family defender offices testified at the same hearing that her office has a team of nineteen parent advocates and social workers who attended nearly 1,000 conferences with parents in fiscal year 2018.91. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. Founded in 1996, Brooklyn Defender Services operates as a nonprofit organization that provides legal services in the areas of family, civil, criminal, and immigration. info@bds.org. 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. Full-time. We demand accountability from government institutions in court and work to reduce the government's reliance on harmful legal systems to address problems caused by poverty and racism. But the defender community maintains meaningful pressure on the system to live up to this rhetoric. In countless cases over the past decade in New York City, pregnant parents have had the benefit of representation by one of the family defender offices before any case was brought against them. See also In re Hofbauer, 393 N.E.2d 1009 (N.Y.1979). He was kind and understanding. at 4648. Homicide Unit Mitigation Social Worker . 63. 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. & Fam. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 45. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 45. 14. Admin., The CITYFEPS Rent Supplement Program Fact Sheet, N.Y.C. 61. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. Our Law & Appeals attorneys work on special legal proceedings, including appeals and special motions in family court. 93. See Family Defense, NDS: The Power of Pub. 86. 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. 8. 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. 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. . BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. 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. 44. 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. She asked her mother to take Sophia to see a doctor because Ms. Green had to be at work. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 5253. 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 Gottlieb et al., supra note 60, at 559. However, Ms. Anderson progressed so well that the hearing never needed to be conducted. The parent advocate from the defense team working with Ms. Greens case provided an invaluable role in buffering the relationship with the caseworker, acting as a bridge and facilitating communication between the two. 83. Mr. Sanchez brought Eduardo to a public hospital for medical attention. They provide the opportunity to enter a field with an ambitious social justice vision.62. Admin., The CITYFEPS Rent Supplement Program Fact Sheet, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/CITYFEPS/CITYFEPS-fact-sheet.pdf. Ms. Barrow was assigned a family defender office. Since it began, the Brooklyn Defender Services' Family Defense Practice has represented nearly 11,000 parents involving more than 20,000 children. The Article proceeds in five parts. After waiting two additional months, the team filed a motion for enhanced, unsupervised visits, arguing that the agencys refusal to grant unsupervised visits was arbitrary and damaging to the long-term purpose of child protection. Who We Are | If/When/How 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. 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. The defense team was able to dispose of it in less than three months. What services have they completed? 28. It is here, at the exquisite level of facts, that the defender offices make their greatest difference. Are you or someone you know being investigated by the police or ACS? The social workers on Ms. Greens defense team tapped into their knowledge of local community resources and helped Ms. Green find accessible services that would fit into her busy school and work schedule. 78. Brooklyn residents are harmed and impacted by government policies and practices that fuel mass incarceration and the destruction of families. These plans are routinely included in the reports agencies are required to submit every six months whenever children remain in foster care. Generally, two of the most important factors in securing the return of a child to parental custody are participation in agency-recommended services and favorable foster care agency reports about parent visits with the child. 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. Quite often, the family defender offices in New York City achieve results for their clients that meaningfully advance childrens interests that could not have been achieved without spending considerable amounts of time out of court. The hospital then called Ms. Green and asked her what she could tell them. The defense team then went into action. Family Defense Practice | Appointment | The Bronx Defenders 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. For these and many more questions, we may be able to help, even if you are not a Brooklyn Defenders client. 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. Our Work. In re Ella B., 285 N.E.2d 288, 290 (N.Y. 1972). Brooklyn Defender Services: Employee Directory | ZoomInfo.com Supervising Attorney, Family Defense Practice - Brooklyn Defenders New York, New York, United States . Several years earlier, she gave birth when she was still in foster care. Because the bump did not immediately appear on Sophias head, Ms. Green could not be certain how the injury was sustained. Keeping families together requires striving to establish understanding and ensuring that the parents voice is heard through support and advocacy. At the current time, BDS physical offices are open by appointment only. The offices, unlike the panel lawyers, do not think solely in terms of when is the case next in court. Id. At this point, the court appointed one of the family defender offices to represent Mr. Sanchez. 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. Despite agreeing to attend the meeting, however, the agency caseworker never came to the meeting. 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. for Child.s Servs. It's time to renew your membership and keep access to free CLE, valuable publications and more. 2 (updated July 2019), https://caseyfamilypro-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/media/SF_Quality-parent-representation_fnl.pdf; see also Martin Guggenheim & Susan Jacobs, Providing Parents Multidisciplinary Legal Representation Significantly Reduces Childrens Time in Foster Care, Child L. Prac. 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. For most parents, this conference, occurring at one of the most emotionally laden moments of their lives, and which will fatefully determine whether they will be allowed to bring their child home with them from the hospital, is something they endure alone without representation or support. Full-time. 97. If you are not a current client and need assistance, click here to get help. 30+ days ago. The investigator also met with Eduardos primary care physician, but not with the orthopedic surgeon. Under New York law, the definition of [n]eglected child includes a child less than eighteen years of age (i) whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of his parent or other person legally responsible for his care to exercise a minimum degree of care (A) in supplying the child with adequate . That was the critical step that led to the successful resolution of the case. That knowledge commonly results in the offices achieving better, faster results for their clients than the child welfare agency is capable of, with considerably less disruption of the family, eliminating or significantly shortening the time children are forced to live apart from their families. & Youth Servs. Once the judge could be persuaded of this, the prospects of significantly increasing the amount of time Ms. Green could spend with her child were greatly advanced. Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1, at 53. General Inquiries. 2 (. Hum. 24. 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. The staff lawyers also benefit by having access to motions previously filed by colleagues in other cases and an administrative staff to help them efficiently file motions with the court.61 These offices have developed a deep knowledge of the communities their clients live in and strong ties with local resources and service providers. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Entry Level Attorney Candidates for the Family Defense team. 40592/88, 1989 WL 1715714 (N.Y. Sup. 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. is a public defense office that provides outstanding representation and advocacy to people facing loss of freedom, family separation and other serious legal harms. Recruitment - ADP Brooklyn Defenders | LinkedIn Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Experienced Attorney's for the Criminal Practice's legal team. Recognizing that as soon as the baby was born, the agency would conduct a child safety conference at which it would make fateful decisions involving the family, the new team immediately started planning with Ms. Anderson. 77, 105 (2016). 74. Nonetheless, Ms. Barrows defense team ensured that it was fully prepared for the conference, having secured letters from Ms. Barrows mental health providers laying out her treatment plan and documenting her increased engagement in services and subsequent progress in her mental health. Emily (she/her/hers) received her J.D. Popular Searches Brooklyn Defender Services Bds The medications began working after only a few weeks and Ms. Barrow quickly regained her focus. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking an experienced Attorney for the Custody Practice of the Family Defense Team. L. & Poly 141 (2002). See N.Y.C. Admin. 13. Get the inside scoop on jobs, salaries, top office locations, and CEO insights. The last 15 months have taken a toll on all of us. He was just what we needed in a lawyer. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. 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. 3 TO PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. Melissa Trent - Supervising Attorney, Family Defense Practice These factors included demographic characteristics of parents and children, family size, severity of allegations and types of allegations, judge, court borough, and prior involvement with the child welfare system. at 3940 (oral testimony of Caitlin Becker, MSW, Managing Dire., Soc. 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. See Paredes v. City of New York, No. Then she engaged a cleaning service to address the roaches and the condition of Ms. Barrows home. FAMILY DEFENSE. Part II briefly describes the findings in the quantitative analysis. At the end of the six months, the case was dismissed. 96%. With the housing crisis abated, the rest of the family defense team could keep its focus on the family court case. 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. See N.Y. Fam. Along the path of the case, courts typically order that parents perform various services63 and ultimately order that children be allowed to remain with their families or be placed in another arrangement. 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). Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice - AFFCNY Mr. Sanchez was permitted to take his son to Mexico for the treatment he preferred. 25. A detailed description of strategic uses of court appearances, including the opposition of out-of-court removals; the filing of motions for discovery, for visitation, and for early release from foster care; and the conducting of contested evidentiary hearings, is provided in Accidents Happen, supra note 73, at 40624. In those cases, the parent would not have had anyone to attend the child safety conference with her at the hospital. In the year before the petition was filed, Eduardo sustained an injury that required medical attention. 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. 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. In addition, by being such a careful listener and advocate, the defender team also ensured that Mr. Sanchez felt supported during an especially challenging time in his life when he was forced to divert his attention from taking care of his son to defending his right to remain his sons parent. Her mother took Sophia to the emergency room. See Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 1; see also Understanding the Effects of an Interdisciplinary Approach, supra note 4. But the team was unable to secure the agencys support for unsupervised visits. 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. 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. Serv. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services177 Livingston Street, 7th FlBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services156 Pierrepont StreetBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. Law 424 (McKinney 2020). As a result, a second meeting was scheduled with the surgeon, Mr. Sanchezs defense team, and the agency. As the field continues to improve, all parents should be given lawyers working in an interdisciplinary practice. P (718) 254-0700; F (718) 254-0897; E info@bds.org; Facebook; Twitter; 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. 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. That is what it prepared for when it represented Ms. Anderson. 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.