December 2001. Garcia No Title.

Vermont Bar Journal

2001.

December 2001.

Garcia No Title

EFFECTIVE REPRESENTATION FOR PARENTS IN ABUSE AND NEGLECT CASES: A CONTRACT COUNSEL'S PERSPECTIVE

Luis C. Garcia, Esq.

One-third of the state's abuse and neg

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lect petitions are filed in Chittenden County. In 1998, the Chittenden Family Court was designated as one of two "per

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manency pilot court" projects. (The other one is in Rutland.). The Permanency Planning Project is charged with imple

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menting changes in the court system for children in state custody. The objective is to move abused and neglected children through the system with minimal delays so that these children reach a permanent home more quickly than in the past. The goal is to provide "permanency" for these children within two years of their coming into SRS custody. In this article, attorney Luis C. Garcia writes about the more cooperative approach adopted by the attorneys in the Chittenden Family Court Permanency Project.

The Adoption & Safe Families Act (ASFA)(fn1) creates tremendous pressure on attorneys representing parents in abuse and neglect cases. Once the court has placed the child in SRS custody, ASFA establishes the time line for reunification with the parent. Because ASFA shortens the time frame from the initial court inter-vention to "permanency," the parents have a very limited time to address the issues that caused the child's removal from their home. While parents' attorneys are strong advocates for their respective clients, ASFA offers no luxury for any delays for the child in SRS custody. So, to represent properly the interest of clients, attorneys have been forced to transform their crimi-nal defense model of "deny and delay" to one of negotiation and cooperation in order to move toward the ultimate goal - the reunification of clients with their chil-dren.

The Chittenden Permanency Project includes court clerks, guardians ad litem, SRS, an assistant state's attorney, an assis-tant attorney general, public defenders, assigned contract counsel, as well as serv-ice providers from various agencies. We have found that adopting a less adversari-al approach often offers the best way to reach permanency for abused and neglect-ed children, while at the same time ensur-ing that parents' due process rights are protected.

Because time is so...