Homelessness as a Basis of Removal

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Many states, including Utah, have a statute that prevents children from being removed based upon reasons of poverty alone.

Utah Code 78A-6-302(3) reads:

In the absence of one of the factors described in Subsection (1), a court may not remove a child from the parent's or guardian's custody on the basis of:

(a) educational neglect, truancy, or failure to comply with a court order to attend school;

(b) mental illness or poverty of the parent or guardian; or

(c) disability of the parent or guardian, as defined in Section 57-21-2.

Lack of adequate housing and homelessness, however, are often entangled with the reasons for removal.

There are resources available including the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare:  http://www.nchcw.org.

Follow THIS LINK to for a copy of a slide show presentation that was made at the Nation Parent Attorney Conference in 2015.

National Drug Court Online Learning System

The Center for Court Innovation has announced the availability of new training resources on the National Drug Court Online Learning System:

In partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Center has developed a series of interviews with juvenile drug court practitioners that focus on their roles within a juvenile drug court team. These interviews are particularly relevant for new practitioners and cover the following roles:

• Judge
• Prosecutor
• Public Defender
• Probation Officer
• Program Coordinator
• Treatment Provider
• Educational Liaison

The Center has also developed new expert presentations for adult drug courts, including lessons on:

• Role of the Prosecutor
• Role of the Public Defender
• Implementing Evidence-Based Practices in Drug Court

Find the new material, as well as other valuable training resources, at drugcourtonline.org.

Save the Date for the 2016 PDA Conference!

Mark your calendars!  The Annual Conference of the Parental Defense Alliance of Utah will be on

April 28-29, 2016

We look forward to seeing you again!

Want the Handout from the E-Filing Training?

The Court provided us with a nice handout at the E-Filing Training last Friday, November 6, 2015.

They have put together a Power Point presentation with screenshots that is specifically for defense counsel.  As of the date of the training it was not available online.  The handout included 42 pages of full color slides from the Power Point presentation.

It's a great reference and would allow you to even write some notes on it as you perfect the E-Filing process.

If you are interested in a hard copy, email Kate Hansen at kate@parentaldefense.org and leave your name and address.  We will stick one in the mail for you.

Copies are limited and we will not produce more once they are gone.

Proposed Enhancements for the CARE E-Filing System

We had a great turnout for our E-Filing training last Friday, November 6, 2015.  In addition to some general information about the E-Filing system CARE, Brody Arishita of the courts provided live demonstrations and explanations of various aspects of how to perform certain actions in the system.

While the system is live now (in other words you don't have to wait until December 1, 2015 to begin E-Filing on your cases), there are still enhancements that would make the system easier.  The following is a list of enhancements that the PDA is passing onto the E-Filing team for consideration.  If you have additional items, you can comment here or contact Kate Hansen at kate@parentaldefense.org.

PROPOSED ENHANCEMENTS TO THE CARE E-FILING SYSTEM 

1.  Rather that simply search by the name of the child, it would be helpful for parental defense attorneys to be able to search by parent name.

2.  When adding difference cases/children to a particular filing, it would be helpful to have a check box available, rather than adding them manually.

3.  It would be helpful if the contact information for counsel and state workers were available in the system, such as GALs, AGs or caseworkers.

4.  On the search page it would be helpful to be able to change the default from A-A to A-Z.

5.  On the MyCalendar page, it would be helpful to be able to search for a date range rather than just look at one day at a time.

6.  A file repository in the system would be helpful, particularly when there are multiple users in a firm.

Thanks to all who attended and especially the court staff--Katie Gregory, Krista Airam, and Brody Aristita-- for coming!

Meet Jim Smith - Board Member for the 3rd Judicial District

As an attorney at Lokken and Associates, Jim Smith practices parental defense in child welfare cases and family dependency drug court in Utah’s Third District.  He also has extensive background in family law, criminal defense, and bankruptcy law.  In his position with the Parental Defense Alliance of Utah, Jim is particularly interested in giving newcomers to child welfare law the tools they need to quickly become confident and effective practitioners in a field of law that is often uniquely challenging.

Jim loves kids (he has five of them!), sailing, camping, and studying maritime and Utah history.  A native Californian, he now lives with his family in Lehi where he serves as cubmaster in his local Cub Scout pack and continually adds to his collection of Titanic books and memorabilia.

The PDA has New Board Members!

The Parental Defense Alliance is excited to introduce our new board.  As previously announced we are moving to a board that will represent the various regions and judicial districts of the state.  After receiving a number of qualified applicants, we have offered positions to Mark Tanner and Jim Smith. The board and it's representation now looks like the following:

Region Name	Judicial Districts	Current Board Member Representative
Northern	1 and 2	Carol Mortensen
Salt Lake	3	Jim Smith
Central	4	Grant Dickinson
Southern	5 and 6	David Boyer
Eastern	7 and 8	Mark Tanner

We look forward to tapping into the expertise and ideas of this new expanded board as we continue to serve the parental defense attorneys in the state of Utah.