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Child representation

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How To Improve Legal Representation Of Children In America's Child Welfare System, Donald Duquette Feb 2022

How To Improve Legal Representation Of Children In America's Child Welfare System, Donald Duquette

Law & Economics Working Papers

From 2009 to 2016 the University of Michigan Law School served as the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep). This article provides the final recommendations of this project. These recommendations have not yet been published in the academic literature. This article first summarizes the research findings of the QIC-ChildRep project. Then it sets out QIC-ChildRep recommendations for: 1) Training and supervision of lawyers; 2) State statutes and rules governing lawyers for children; 3) State organizational structure to support child representation; 4) Strategies for recruiting lawyers in this specialty; 5) Caseload size; …


Characteristics Of Attorneys Representing Children In Child Welfare Cases, Britany Orlebeke, Andrew Zinn, Xiaomeng Zhou, Donald N. Duquette Jan 2015

Characteristics Of Attorneys Representing Children In Child Welfare Cases, Britany Orlebeke, Andrew Zinn, Xiaomeng Zhou, Donald N. Duquette

Articles

Every day in state and local courts throughout the United States, judges are called upon to decide who should have the responsibility for the immediate and long-term care of neglected and abused children. Federal recognition of the right to independent advocacy for children subject to these proceedings originates with the 1974 Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). As a condition of receiving federal funds for child abuse prevention services through CAPTA, states must provide for the appointment of an appropriately trained guardian ad litem (GAL) for every child whose case results in a judicial proceeding. A guardian ad …


Child Representation In America: Progress Report From The National Quality Improvement Center, Donald N. Duquette, Julian Darwall Jan 2012

Child Representation In America: Progress Report From The National Quality Improvement Center, Donald N. Duquette, Julian Darwall

Articles

Few dispute that children in the child welfare system need effective representation. In October 2009, the U.S. Children's Bureau named the University of Michigan Law School the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep). The QIC-ChildRep is a five-year, multimillion dollar project, charged with gathering, developing, and communicating knowledge on child representation. In addition, the QIC-ChildRep is tasked with promoting a consensus on the role of the child's legal representative and providing one of the first random assignment experimental design research projects on the legal representation of children.


Two Distinct Roles/Bright Line Test, Donald N. Duquette Jan 2006

Two Distinct Roles/Bright Line Test, Donald N. Duquette

Articles

It is a mistake to try to develop a single lawyer role for children in child welfare cases which tries to accommodate their developing capacities from infants to articulate teens. The older child needs a traditional attorney; the youngest child, incapable of directing counsel, needs a substitute to define and advocate for his or her best interests. We should adopt different standards for the different advocate roles. Trying to define a single lawyer role for children of all ages and all capacities is an impossible task. A better approach towards recognizing and accommodating the child's developing cognitive abilities and judgment …


Legal Representation For Children In Protection Proceedings: Two Distinct Lawyer Roles Are Required, Donald N. Duquette Jan 2000

Legal Representation For Children In Protection Proceedings: Two Distinct Lawyer Roles Are Required, Donald N. Duquette

Articles

The thesis of this article is that it is a mistake to try to develop a single lawyer role for children in protection cases which tries to accommodate their developing capacities from infants to articulate teens. Sometimes a child needs a traditional attorney; sometimes a best interests advocate. We should adopt different standards for the different lawyer roles. Trying to define a single lawyer role for children of all ages and all capacities is an impossible task. This article argues that we should resolve the ambivalence not by adopting a client-directed or a best interests approach, but by having two …