Monday, July 27, 2015
Medical Child Abuse
Monday, July 20, 2015
New Timeline for E-Filing and Survey
The Juvenile Court has updated the implementation timeline for the mandatory e-filing. The new date is December 1, 2015. This will mean that all attorneys will be required to file their documents with the court (through CARE) beginning on December 1, 2015.
If you currently do not have a CARE login, please contact your the court administrator in your district. See more information HERE.
There will be some training on e-filing at the CIP Attorney Skills Training on August 31, 2015. More information on that HERE.
The Parental Defense Alliance would also like to host a training on e-filing specific to parental defense attorneys. If you are interested, please fill out the following SURVEY.
Friday, July 17, 2015
June is National Reunification Month
June is National Reunification Month and the ABA has been celebrating by identifying "Reunification Heroes." These are the workers on the front lines, the parents who fight their way back to their kids and all those who support them. You can read more about this year's Reunification Heroes HERE.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
New Civil Rights Decision Involving Child Welfare: Kirkpatrick v. County of Washoe
On July 10, 2015, the Ninth Circuit found that a caseworker and a supervisor could be held liable for removing a two-day-old newborn from its mother in the hospital without a court order. Even though the mother had a drug problem and the defendants had not been trained in the law requiring a court order, they were not entitled to qualified immunity.
You can find a copy of the decision HERE.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Registration is OPEN for the CIP Attorney Skills Training
The Court Improvement Program Steering Committee invites you to register for the 2015 CIP Attorney Skills Training.
This is a complimentary 2-day training designed specifically for Utah's child welfare attorneys. We have an excellent program planned that includes national and local presenters who will address the following topics:
- Juvenile Court eFiling, including a live demonstration, online training resources, and one-on-one assistance at our eFiling lab
- Trauma-informed practice as it relates to children, parents, and YOU
- Ethics - Conflicts of Interest
- Direct and cross examination of expert witnesses
- How to identify the perpetrator
- Film screening of the documentary Tough Love http://www.toughlovefilm.
com/
A final agenda will be distributed prior to the training. CLE approval pending.
Date
The training begins Monday, August 31st at 10 am and ends on Tuesday, September 1st at 3 pm.
Registration:
Registration closes August 7th, but register soon to ensure hotel room availability.
To register online, click here or paste this link into your URL bar:
https://utahcip.wufoo.com/
Lodging:
Zermatt Resort, 784 West Resort Dr., Midway, UT 84049
Lodging is complimentary and available on the following nights:
Sunday, August 30th -- only for participants who must travel more than 50 miles from their home office.
Monday, August 31st -- available for ANY PARTICIPANT regardless of distance they must travel.
**Please do not contact the hotel to reserve lodging. Instead, indicate on the registration form the nights you will need lodging and you will be included on a rooming list.
Travel
Mileage reimbursement will be provided. Complimentary parking is available on-site.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at gabriellaa@utcourts.gov or (801) 578-3939.
On behalf of the CIP Training Steering Committee, we look forward to seeing you in August!
Monday, June 22, 2015
US Supreme Court: “Children’s Reports of Child Abuse are Non-Testimonial and Not Subject to Confrontation.”
On June 18, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided the case of Ohio v. Clark. Because this case has implications for attorneys practicing child welfare law, Grant Dickinson of the PDA has created the following summary:
Clark had sent his girlfriend away to prostitute and while she was gone cared for her young children. Her son reported to a teacher that Clark had abused him. At trial Clark unsuccessfully sought to exclude the child’s statements to the teacher because the admission of the statement violated his right confront the witness against him. The trial court denied his motion and he was convicted. The Ohio state Supreme Court reversed the conviction. Ohio appealed.
The Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the Ohio Supreme Court finding that the child’s statements to the teacher were not testimonial in nature and the primary purpose of the communication was not to establish or prove past events for later prosecution; therefore not subject to the confrontation clause of the sixth amendment. This was reinforced by the ongoing emergency perceived by school employees and whether they could release the child to Clark at the end of the day. The Court further stated, “statements by very young children will rarely, if ever, implicate the Confrontation Clause.”
How this applies to child welfare. We are often confronted with statements of children being used against our clients. This newest ruling weakens our grasp at the confrontation clause as a way to exclude such statements. This case coupled with Utah statute U.C.A. 78A-6-115(6), which allows for child’s statements to trusted adults as exceptions to the prohibition against hearsay, limit our ability to cross examine children thus allowing children’s hearsay statements as testimony to be used against our clients.
Full Opinion Available at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-1352_ed9l.pdf
Monday, June 15, 2015
Tough Love Documentary
On Friday, June 5, 2015, we held the screening of the documentary film Tough Love at the Gateway Theaters in downtown Salt Lake. In attendance was the filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal and Retired Judge Patricia Clark from Seattle, Washington who appears in the film. They offered great insight and advice on how to improve the experiences of families in juvenile court.
We have received great feedback from the event. One attorney even told us that every judge, AG and GAL needs to watch the film! We feel the same.
There are two upcoming opportunities to see the film.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)