91. 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. 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. See Casey Family Programs, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? Federal law requires states to have written case plans for every child in care in order to ensure that an appropriate long-term plan is identified for each foster child. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. 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. 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. 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. 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. 2022 American Bar Association, all rights reserved. Criminal Defense Practice Social Worker. 81. for Child.s Servs. An ill-advised case plan not only wastes money; it wastes the most precious commodity in the field: time. But the offices nonetheless prevented foster care entirely because of out-of-court advocacy. 85. The offices help parents negotiate all aspects of the process throughout the life of the case. Her mother took Sophia to the emergency room. Hybrid remote in Brooklyn, NY 11201. 93. When the conference took place one day after the babys birth, the defense teams social worker and parent advocate attended with Ms. Barrow. Ms. Greens attorneys used this knowledge to start planning their settlement and trial strategy.73. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of these agency meetings. Id. 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. 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. 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. But because she would be applying for shelter housing at a time when her children were not in her custody, she would be counted as a single person living alone and would be eligible only for a studio-sized apartment, unsuitable for children. Martin Guggenheim is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law. 64. 347-592-2500. The true meaning of the findings in the quantitative study that these offices secure the return of children to their families significantly sooner than would happen without them is that child welfare practice without the kind of oversight accomplished by the offices wrongfully separates children from families in a significant percentage of cases. 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. 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. Res. Brooklyn, NY 11201. Office of Research & Analysis, Emergency Removals Subcommittee (Sept. 16, 2015). Additional data from The Bronx Defenders presented in testimony to the New York State Commission on Parental Representation indicated that of the 81 children born to clients who already had children in foster at the time they gave birth to the newborn, the office was successful in ensuring that 58 (72 percent) remained at home with their mothers and 17 (20 percent) were placed with caretakers of their mothers choosing. 86. 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. 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. When the doctor requested more x-rays, the caseworker explained that she could not remain for the conference after the tests came back. 8 Brooklyn Defender Services jobs available in Brooklyn, NY on Indeed.com. In re Ella B., 285 N.E.2d 288, 290 (N.Y. 1972). See N.Y. Fam. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services 177 Livingston St., 7th Fl. Browse 12 jobs at brooklyn defender services near Brooklyn, NY. Today, we are the primary provider of legal representation to parents facing the removal of their children to the foster system in Brooklyn Family Court. Rev. 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. We serve the Brooklyn community by providing individual services to thousands of people each year, holding clinics and educational programs in our community office and online, and supporting fellow community organizations. 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. Serv. mediarequests@bds.org. 72. A non-profit public defense office in Brooklyn, New York. The Family Defense Practice at Brooklyn Defenders has been representing parents and other caregivers in Family Court since 2007. 30+ days ago. 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. Mr. Sanchez brought Eduardo to a public hospital for medical attention. The strategy worked. The family defender system characterized by the work performed by the New York City offices is a significant contribution to the child welfare field. L TO LIVONIA AVENUE. 89. 66. Find employees, official website, emails, phone numbers, revenue, employee headcount, social accounts, and anything related to Brooklyn Defender Services. Ct. The three officesBrooklyn Defender Services (Kings County), The Bronx Defenders (Bronx County), and the Center for Family Representation (New York County)are each structured somewhat differently.19 The characteristic all three offices have in common is that they are multidisciplinary: they employ lawyers on their staff along with social workers and/or parent advocates (individuals who themselves experienced the child welfare system as a parent accused of neglecting their child).20 Each office spends considerable time on their cases out of court, working closely with their clients and advocating for and with them at child welfare agencies meetings.21 Several years later, a fourth officethe Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlemwas awarded a contract to share the representation of parents in Manhattan with the Center for Family Representation, using their community-based model to represent families living in Harlem zip codes.22 In 2011, the Center for Family Representation was awarded a second contract to provide parental representation in Queens County.23 To date, these four providers handle the vast majority of parental representation in New York, Kings, Queens, and Bronx Counties. Ct. 2003). & Fam. 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. 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. The representation she received simply would have been impossible for most individual panel attorneys to match. Office of Research & Analysis, How Does High-Quality Legal Representation for Parents Support Better Outcomes? P (718) 254-0700; F (718) 254-0897; E info@bds.org; Facebook; Twitter; Each office was expected to accept approximately half of the new case assignments to represent parents charged with abuse or neglect of their children (what this Article calls child welfare cases).18 The remainder of the filings were to be assigned, as before, to panel attorneys. 94. Child welfare cases are prosecuted along two tracks: the judicial and the administrative. Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) is seeking Experienced Attorney's for the Criminal Practice's legal team. 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. Whether it is the removal of children, incarceration, deportation, eviction or houselessness, the people we represent face long periods of forced family separation. What insights have they gained? Prior to joining If/When/How, Noran began her legal career as a public defender in 2018 at Brooklyn Defender Services in the Family Defense practice representing parents and families who were impacted by the family regulation system. 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. Unfortunately, the foster care worker assigned to Ms. Greens case proved to be very difficult for Ms. Green to work with. Ms. Anderson began therapy that was designed to address her history of physical and sexual abuse in foster care and her previous relationship, helping her to understand how those experiences had shaped her adult life and her approach to parenting. Altogether, Ms. Anderson was separated from her baby for less than nine weeks. 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. 92. General Inquiries. 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 Less than a year later, Eduardo sustained another injury in his hip. N.Y. Unified Ct. Sys. Then the team moved forward on expanding Ms. Barrows access to her older children. Res. 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. In that capacity, she also represented parents in a wide range of matters related to family law . Admin. 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. Brooklyn residents are harmed and impacted by government policies and practices that fuel mass incarceration and the destruction of families. Mr. Sanchez was permitted to take his son to Mexico for the treatment he preferred. She asked her mother to take Sophia to see a doctor because Ms. Green had to be at work. When that happens, the impact of the defender offices is invisible. This program, known as City FHEPS, is administered by New York Citys Human Resources Administration. 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. 33. 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). 77, 105 (2016). Martin Guggenheim, New Study Shows Providing Parents with Multidisciplinary Legal Representation in Child Welfare Cases Furthers Everyones Interests, 20 Child.s Bureau Express no. Approximately 20 percent of the Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice clients are immigrants, and many do not speak English as their first language. 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. Once again, Ms. Barrows defense team went into action. Easily apply. Brooklyn, NY, US. 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. Unlike the other two offices, which were part of larger organizations that secured income from multiple sources, CFRs only work was in parent representation. They provide the opportunity to enter a field with an ambitious social justice vision.62. 11. Without the offices housing advocacy, Ms. Barrow would have had no home for her newborn to return to. Commn on Parental Legal Representation Pub. 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. Brooklyn Defender Services177 Livingston Street, 7th FlBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services156 Pierrepont StreetBrooklyn, NY 11201, Brooklyn Defender Services566 Livonia Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207. He was kind and understanding. Schreibersdorf & Shapiro written testimony, supra note 24, at 5. 62. BDS attorneys, social workers, paralegals, investigators and administrative professionals have an unwavering commitment to the people we represent. 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. 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. 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. When Mr. Sanchez met with his lawyers and social worker, he provided the fuller picture.