In today's morning read, I saw this article on a woman who successfully sued the local children services agency.
A civil jury has awarded $4.9 million to a Seal Beach woman who claimed that the Orange County Department of Social Services violated her parental rights by taking her two pre-teen daughters away in 2000 and placing them in foster care.Lawyers for Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick contended that two social workers fabricated negative evidence and suppressed positive evidence to support their decision to remove the girls, who were then 6 and 9.
The jury in Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer's courtroom voted 10-2 that Fogarty-Hardwick's right to raise her children free of governmental interference had been violated, said Shawn A. McMillan, one of her attorneys.
I do not know all of the facts in this case and I would invite anyone who does to comment on them here. However, I will say that in my line of work as a family law attorney, then agencies like these get involved in cases, it becomes a scary dilemma for lawyers. Do you advise your client to cooperate? Or are you doing them wrong by not advising them to exercise their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, since these things can wind up in dependency court?
As with many states, California has - by statute - mandated reporters. These are persons who by their occupation come into contact with children and must report any reasonable suspicions of child abuse or neglect. By virtue of being a mandated reporter, they are immune from civil liability in a suit filed by an angry parent. I know that when I have a client complain that they think the other parent is "abusing" the child, I have to walk a fine line in hearing them outright and haering them in the context of a custody dispute, where I know people's emotions cloud reality and their better judgment, at times. For many mandated reporters, that distinction is overlooked at the report is filed, setting off what can turn into a firestorm. Reading this article does not assuage my worries when I have to deal with this.
3 comments:
I am a "mandatory reporter", but I am a devout Christian as well. The law dictates that if I violate the law, I could be penalized with $1000 and/or 6 months in jail. However, after understanding how some of these horrible circumstances these family going through once they got reported, I would now be willing to take on the punishment from the law on myself rather than causing these types of pains and sufferings to people (unless the evidences for injustice was so overwhelming.)
I was lead trial counsel in the case and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Note: I am not a family law attorney, I was admitted in 2000, and do mostly business litigation and trials. You may respond to attyshawn@fastmail.fm
DCFS is utterly out of control. the case workers are vicious liars, the children's courts are mockeries, and you either have to spend many tens of thousands of dollars or just let yourself get mauled.
The impetus of the system is to generate revenue by placing children outside the home. $30,000 per child.
Christian families are especially vulnerable. In fact my impression is that Wiccans are very prevalent in this system- and it stands to reason they would be.
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