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ABA Center on Children and the Law The National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System aims to strengthen representation of parents in the child welfare system. For more information, please see: Project Description Accomplishing Goals National Parents’ Counsel Organization Mission Statement Members of Steering Committee for the National Parents’ Counsel Organization

From the American Bar Association These resources provide further information for parents, attorneys and advocates involved in the child welfare system. Legal Representation for Parents Bronx Defenders, Bronx, New York Brooklyn Family Defense Project, Brooklyn, New York Center For Family Representation, Inc., New York, New York Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, Detriot, Michigan Family Defense Center, Chicago, Illinois Juvenile Court Project: Parent Advocates, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, Illinois Legal Services of New Jersey, Family Representation Project, New Jersey Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers, Inc., Los Angeles, California Office of Parental Representation, New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, New Jersey State Programs/Training/Support for Parent Representation California Center for Families, Children and the Courts (General) California Center For Families, Children and the Courts (Training Materials) Committee For Public Counsel Services: Children and Family Law Program, Massachusetts Colorado Judicial Branch: Respondent Parents' Counsel Task Force Office of Parent Representation, Indigent Defense Services, North Carolina Parental Defense Alliance of Utah Washington State Office of Public Defense Georgia Parent Attorney Advisory Committee Parent Representation Law School Clinics University of Michigan Law School: Program on Children and the Law New York University School of Law: Family Defense Clinic University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law: HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic Parent Advocacy/Reform Organizations Child Welfare Organizing Project, New York National Center for Housing and Child Welfare Law National Coalition for Child Protection Reform Rise Magazine: By and For Parents in the Child Welfare System National Coalition for Parent Advocacy in Child Protective Services Parents Anonymous® Inc. California Parent Engagement Center   ABA Site Search for Parent Attorney in Cases of Abuse and Neglect American Bar Association Standards of Practice for Attorneys Representing Parents in Abuse and Neglect Cases

New DCF "mini Miranda" for Connecticut Ellington lawyer wins battle for DCF ‘mini-Miranda’ law By Alex Wood Journal Inquirer Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 12:36 PM EDT Starting in October, social workers investigating possible child abuse or neglect for the state Department of Children and Families will have to give parents a written notice of their rights, roughly comparable to the famous Miranda warnings that police give to crime suspects. “Even sophisticated people believe they must speak to DCF,” said Ellington lawyer Michael H. Agranoff, whose office drafted the new law and advocated it for a decade. Agranoff, who specializes in representing adults in DCF-related cases, calls the new law the “DCF mini-Miranda” and “the Magna Carta of parents’ rights in Connecticut.” THIS IS MAJOR, MAJOR NEWS Here's his EXCELLENT website- The Law Offices of Michael H. Agranoff Here is the bill in original PDF format which I have converted into HTML format so you can copy and paste it into documents. Raised Bill No. 5143 An Act Concerning Investigations By The Department Of Children And Families PDF FORMAT               HTML FORMAT

The Grandfamilies State Law and Policy Resource Center is a collaboration between Casey Family Programs, the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law and Generations United.

Working with the Courts in Child Protection Author(s): Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect. Jones, William G. Year Published: 2006 Assessments of Parent Representation Programs  Georgia Statewide Assessment of Parent Representation Practices Legal Representation for Parents in Child Welfare Proceedings: A Performance-Based Analysis of Michigan Practice California- Implementation Guide to Juvenile Dependency Court Performance Measures Toolkit Offers Guidance for Developing and Implementing Court Performance Measures in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Weekly News Summary      Weekly Case Law Summary The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy offer these services,  a weekly summary of relevant news stories and Case Law in the areas of adoption and child welfare. This service is available on our website as well as through email.

REPRESENTING PARENTS IN CPS CASES
"Other than that, what do you have against them?"

Prepared By:

Marc D. Isenberg
Miriam J. Riskind
ISENBERG & RISKIND

21st Annual Juvenile Law Conference
February 18-20, 2008
Corpus Christi, Texas

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Officious uh-fish-uhs]  adjective   1. objectionably aggressive in offering one's unrequested and unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome: an officious person. 2. marked by or proceeding from such forwardness: officious interference.

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Search Warrants:

The Problem with Plea Bargaining

CPS violates USC in EVERY CASE- 
most are Capital Crimes

FBI Color of Law page

Title 42 USC Section 1983

The Public Defender Creed

Approved by the American Bar Association House of Delegates, February 5, 1996

...Judges have policies concerning the importance of the court in ensuring that all parties in abuse and neglect cases have competent representation

-and lots, LOTS more.  None of this is even remotely happening.

Defending the CPS Case
How to Level the Playing Field

MAKING REASONABLE EFFORTS: 
A Permanent Home for Every Child 
DEVELOPED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE EDNA MCCONNELL CLARK FOUNDATION 
Photography: Marlene Desautels and Ralph Granich
Design: i4 Design/ Sausalito, CA
Copyright © 2000 Youth Law Center
All rights reserved. 

No Time to Lose: The CPS Case
Learn the answers to frequently asked questions regarding Child Protective Services (CPS)
investigations in Texas and the concerns that families have.
© Copyright 2004, by Gregory L. Housewirth. All rights reserved

How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students
Orin S. Kerr
George Washington University - Law School
The GREEN BAG, An Entertaining Journal of Law, Vol 11, No. 1, p. 51, Autumn 2007

 'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy
Daniel J. Solove
George Washington University Law School
San Diego Law Review, Vol. 44, p. 745, 2007
GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 289 

Logic for Law Students: How to Think Like a Lawyer
Ruggero Aldisert- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Stephen Clowney- University of Kentucky - College of Law
Jeremy Peterson- U.S. Department of Justice
University of Pittsburgh Law Review, 2007

The Nature of Man
Michael C. Jensen- Harvard Business School; The Monitor Company; Social Science Electronic Publishing (SSEP), Inc.
William H. Meckling- University of Rochester Simon School (Deceased)
Michael C. Jensen, FOUNDATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY, Harvard University Press, 1998
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 1994 

This new/huge/free "Public Library of Law" is up and running online, at: http://www.plol. org

Civil Liberties Litigation
By: Gary Gildin, Professor of Law
Judy L. Swarthout, Associate Law Librarian

Five Problems Facing Public Defense
  on the 40^th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright

SERVICES TO FAMILIES IN CRISIS - AS MANDATED BY 42 U.S.C. § 671 (a) (15) and 672 (a) (1) -  "an agency cannot be reimbursed for the cost of a child's out-of-home care unless the reasonable efforts requirement is met."

Federal Grand Jury Sites

Federal Rules of Evidence

HOW THE JUDICIARY STOLE THE RIGHT TO PETITION
JOHN E. WOLFGRAM

No cases challenge a lawyer more than those alleging child abuse - and very few have higher stakes.— David S. Marshall

Overlawyered
Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Overlawyered.com explores an American legal system that too often turns litigation into a weapon against guilty and innocent alike, erodes individual responsibility, rewards sharp practice, enriches its participants at the public's expense, and resists even modest efforts at reform and accountability.

"The Legal Professional's Medical Partner" A Medical Team of MD's, MDPhD's, PhD's, PRN's - No Geographical Limitations AFRA MEMBER

They might be onto a great new idea in Canada!

Operating in municipalities near the Bay of Quinte, Ontario, Canada
Collaborative Family Law:
An Alternative to Destructive Courtroom Battles

2-7-2003 Oops! Did I Say 'No Jail'?
Elderly woman who followed bad advice wins a $1.77M award
Leonard Post
The National Law Journal

A 77-year-old great-grandmother who spent a year in prison for a crime she didn't commit has won a $1.77 million malpractice suit against her attorney, who had advised that if she pleaded guilty not withstanding her claim of innocence she'd get probation.

The jurors unanimously slammed Gore with $1.5 million in punitive damages for "his complete indifference to or conscious disregard for" his client's rights. The balance of the judgment was for negligence.

2-5-2003
Need for a search warrant trips social workers
Ohio authorities not aware of Fourth Amendment Ohio authorities not aware of Fourth Amendment protections
See AFRA's educational effort- American Constitutional Rights for Social Workers 

2-5-2003 9th Circuit Says Public Defender Can Be Sued
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put public defender offices on a liability hot seat Monday by reinstating the case of a convicted murderer who said his lawyer's ineffective assistance violated his civil rights. - This story is on AFRA News, along with links to the Cites and information we have on the subject.  I think we should help the Public Defenders get real honest, real fast.

 

Guide  Click HERE

State Justice Institute Attorney General Evaluation Finds SJI 'Effective'             On November 2, Attorney General Ashcroft submitted the Department of Justice's statutorily-mandated evaluation of SJI's effectiveness to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The report concluded that: SJI appears to have been effective in awarding grants to improve the quality of justice in the state courts, facilitating better coordination and information sharing between state and federal courts, and fostering solutions to common problems faced by all courts.         The Attorney General also observed that "some degree of support for state court innovation and improvement is a Federal interest. . . . given overlapping state-federal jurisdiction, it is in the federal government's interest to have effective and fair state courts, lest litigants turn to federal courts to resolve matters properly within state court responsibilities." There's ALL KINDS of "interesting" and useful stuff here!

New Decisions of Great Value to Families In re Kentron D. (2002) , Cal.App.4th [No. B151154. Second Dist., Div. Two. Sept. 12, 2002.] In re KENTRON D., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. KENTRON D., Defendant and Appellant. This decision comes from a case involving a juvenile delinquent, but contains a lot of interesting material about the inadmissibility of hearsay in juvenile court.  Since this decision relies on both CA and US Supreme Court decisions, it is definitely worth a look if your CPS case was based in any way on hearsay introduced by social welfare workers in the courtroom. Synopsis by Linda Martin of FightCPS Sept 5, 2002  ROSKA v. PETERSON http://laws.findlaw.com/10th/014057.html Decision against Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy ("MSBP") and probably applicable to other made up syndromes and disorders too! A Title 42 USC Section 1983 Suit

 

**Mission*Critical*Need*To*Know*Info** AFRA Research- All About Miranda What you don't know WILL DESTROY YOU!

 Jurisdictionary^® Defining American Justice

Law Centers > Encyclopedia >

Criminal Law

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Criminal Law: An Overview Criminal Procedure: An Overview Dealing with the Police Search and Seizure Criminal Defense Lawyers and Public Defenders Understanding Plea Bargaining: How Most Criminal Cases are Settled Lie Detectors, Drug Tests and Other Scientific Evidence Trials, Sentencing, Punishment and Appeals Law Centers > Encyclopedia > Criminal Law > Search and Seizure > Search Warrants:  What They Are and When They're Necessary Learn when police officers must obtain a warrant before they search your home or other property.

FORMS PAGE

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ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS get a copy of the minutes sheet from any and all of your hearings.  You'd be SURPRISED what's in there that never makes it anywhere else.  These are NOT usually included with the record on appeal; if there's a little gem there that you want (as we have on one of ours, LOL), you have to tell the lower court to include it.  Now, correspondence is ALSO NOT generally part of the record.  You have to TELL the lower court to add it.  Or, you can put it in your appendix on appeal -- but ONLY if you had the clerk put a stamp on it that it WAS in your record and therefore before the judge.

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Center for Judicial Accountability

[New York Law Journal, August 27, 1997, at page 3]

RESTRAINING “LIARS IN THE COURTROOM”
AND ON THE PUBLIC PAYROLL

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Sample Documents

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Edward Harpenau created the United States Process Servers Association in response to a complaint an attorney expressed. She commented it was extremely difficult to find a process server in another state. She tried to call directory assistance, but without the exact name of the process server, the operator was unable to assist her. She knew the sheriff’s department in that county could serve the papers, but felt a private process server would do a more thorough job. With that knowledge, Ed Harpenau created a directory of process servers, which has become invaluable to attorneys needing to locate process servers throughout the United States and Canada.

 

 

Legal Information Institute

building blocks A unique resource for law teachers Cornell Law School

Family Justice Project 
Family Law Reference for Parents

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Information on Children and the Court System

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U.S. COURTS

Understanding the U.S. Courts

Federal Judicial Center

Title 42 USC Section 1983 Information
AFRA seeks to foster a LANDSLIDE of these cases!

CPS violates your Constitutional Rights in EVERY CASE
Here's some of the United States Codes to quote

GUIDE TO USING THE UNITED STATES CODE CONGRESSIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS (U.S.C.C.A.N.)
West's United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.) is an invaluable resource when searching for either the texts of federal public laws or committee reports. All public laws and selected committee reports are printed in U.S.C.C.A.N. from 1948 to the present.

Central Registries/Reporting Records: Expungement of Records

Children Giving Evidence In Court
Copyright © 2010 Gary Storer

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United States Supreme Court Parental Rights Caselaw

Color of Law Civil Rights Violations  The NEW Focus of FBI

The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC)

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United States Laws Affecting Child Welfare Services
CAPTA 74, Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, and ASFA Act of 1997
(and FOIA/Privacy Act Forms)

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Child Custody Attorney Network

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National Institute for Trial Advocacy

National Lawyers Guild Welcome.  The National Lawyers Guild is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. Our aim is to bring together all those who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.

Electronic Discovery and Computer Forensics News and Case Law

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JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATORS

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The Stumbo case in North Carolina What it is about The State Supreme Court Case

 

Qui Tam Information What is Qui Tam? Qui tam allows a citizen of the U.S. to file a suit on behalf of the government against an agent or agency using government funds in a fraudulent manner. Here's some links: http://www.quitaminfocenter.com/ http://www.jameshoyer.com/practice_qui_tam.html?se=Overture Here's some law firms: Nolan Law Firm - Qui tam law firm specializing in government whistleblower fraud cases including health care, pharmaceutical and Medicare fraud http://www.whistleblowerfirm.com/ http://www.quitam.com/ http://www.ffhsj.com/quitam/cfcdecs.htm

Useful Web Sites for Legal Professionals

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Gerry Spence.com

Attorney's Toolbox Cyberspace Tools For Attorneys and Legal Professionals Presented by Randy B. Singer, Esq.

Family Law Briefs 

Quo Warranto- To determine whether a public official is qualified to hold his office and exercise the functions of the office. Grounds for quo warranto might be corruption in office, willful failure to perform statutory duties, or not having the qualifications prescribed by statute for an office. Pamela Gaston's Quo Warranto's http://www.mobar.org/handbook/quowarranto.htm Duhaime's http://www.duhaime.org/dict-qr.htm California Opinion http://caag.state.ca.us/opinions/quo.htm http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=Quo+Warranto&hc=0&hs=0 Quo warranto - challenging the Judges http://www.rightsandwrong.com.au/html/quo.html http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~law/PANEL7.htm

 

American Bar Association
Center on Children and the Law

Issues In Child Abuse Accusations

"Because No one is Above the Law"