Category: Articles, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Safety, Social Work/Child Welfare, Working With Experts CPS Checklist for Discovery (While this applies primarily to California Child Welfare Agencies, it can be applicable to Child Welfare Agencies in the counties of other states as well.) TASA ID: 1220 If you have not had a great deal of experience in litigation against county child welfare agencies, then there are some things which are helpful to know up front. Like most people being sued, CPS agencies don’t like it. They see themselves as “on the side of the angels” for children being abused and neglected and as proponents for strengthening families. And indeed, the vast majority of the time, they are. However, owing to a number of factors, including caseloads, insufficient staffing, divergent levels of skills, personal bias, ill-serving mindsets, and lack of resources; to name a few, mistakes will occur. Sometimes in my experience, they are unintended. They may not be deliberate owing to the press of work that rushes a judgment or fails to look at all the details, including exculpatory evidence. Read more
Category: Articles, Custody, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Social Work/Child Welfare Child Welfare – Why Social Work Doesn’t TASA ID: 1220 In my experience, both while working child welfare and as an expert witness in litigation seeking redress for actions by county CPS agencies, the reasons as to how these things happen fall into one or more of the following:CPS agencies fail to understand and or provide adequate and comprehensive oversight for compliance by their workers with the very codes, laws and regulations which define and direct their actions. Read more
Category: Articles, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Social Work/Child Welfare Plaintiff’s Counsel - What to Expect from County Child Welfare Agencies TASA ID: 1220 Expect to be inundated with a sea of paperwork and documentation, some of which may have nothing to do with the discovery for your particular case, client or circumstances. Defense counsel is well aware that some attorneys are not familiar with the day-to-day operations involved in child welfare and perhaps as a strategy will seek to waste time or distract attention to important detail by “fogging” the field of discovery with peripheral or non-essential documents. Being able to navigate through the “fog” is essential to efficient use of resources. Knowing how a county child welfare agency operates is as important as understanding what they do. Read more
