Ethical Considerations in Child Welfare Cases: The Law Guardian's Perspective
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Description
New York State has long been a leader in the country in insisting that children be represented by members of the bar in important legal proceedings affecting their lives, such as delinquency, child protection, foster care and termination of parental rights proceedings. Even before In re Gault, required that accused juvenile delinquents has a constitutional right to legal representation, the New York legislature accorded them the right to free, court-assigned counsel. Even today, there is no federal constitutional right to court-assigned counsel for children in child protection proceedings (or for their parents). Again, however, New York requires counsel where the federal Constitution does not. Moreover, although Congress requires some kind of representation for children in child protection proceedings, as a condition for the receipt of federal child protection money, it does not require, as New York does, that the representation be conducted by an attorney. That's the good news. The bad news is that the role of counsel remains insufficiently defined more than 40 years after children first were given a statutory right to counsel in Family Court proceedings. Today, as has been true for the past forty years, lawyers representing children in child protection and foster care-related proceedings do not enjoy any clear, definitive statement of their duties and responsibilities beyond the most obvious. Thus, attorneys must appear in court in every case in which they are representing a child.
Source Publication
Child Abuse, Neglect & the Foster Care System 2003: Effective Social Work & the Legal System; The Attorney's Role & Responsibilities
Source Editors/Authors
David J. Lansner
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
Guggenheim, Martin, "Ethical Considerations in Child Welfare Cases: The Law Guardian's Perspective" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 1279.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1279
