We are very excited to announce that Massachusetts has again been ranked as having the best system in the country (tying with Connecticut) for providing counsel to children in child neglect and abuse (“care and protection”) cases. In a report released on June 4, the First Star Institute and the Children’s Advocacy Institute gave Massachusetts an A+ rating based on a number of aspects of our system for providing representation, including those that:
- Mandate that attorneys be appointed for all children in care and protection proceedings.
- Specify that the right to counsel lasts for the entire case, including appeals.
- Require that the attorney’s representation is directed by the child (rather than be based on the attorney’s views about what is in the child’s best interest).
- Provide specialized education and training for the child’s attorney.
- Establish reasonable caseload limits.
CPCS is proud of the structure that it has created for providing attorneys to children involved in care and protection cases. Given that our A+ grade is also based on statutes and court rules, the legislature and the courts deserve credit as well for Massachusetts’s high marks.
This award, however, is not the end of the story. What really matters is providing high-quality trial- and appellate-level advocacy to children, as well as to indigent parents, in actual cases, not just on paper. As you know, providing zealous client-directed representation in care and protection cases is the responsibility of CPCS’s Children and Family Law Division. The work that CAFL private attorneys and CAFL staff do to achieve their clients’ objectives can vary greatly from case to case – and even over the life of a single case. It can include, among other things, advocating for children to live with immediate or extended family, in cases in which the Department of Children and Families seeks to place them with strangers in foster care; protecting parents and children against being treated differently based on their race, ethnicity, ability/disability status, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression; or defending clients in the face of a DCF petition to terminate a parent’s parental rights (sometimes referred to as the “death penalty of family law”) when other appropriate options are available.
Massachusetts is regularly acknowledged as a national leader in how it fulfills our constitutional and statutory mandates to provide legal representation to those who cannot afford it in right-to-counsel cases. While we constantly aim to improve the quality of our advocacy on behalf of all of our clients, we welcome this recognition for what we have accomplished in CAFL cases. Please join me in celebrating this honor and in commending CAFL private attorneys and CAFL staff members for the critically important advocacy they provide to children and indigent parents.
The First Star/CAI report is available here. An executive summary of the report and a press release regarding the report are also available.