NEW YORK CITY ACS DEFENSE LAWYER

 This is the ultimate nightmare of any parent. The most frightening thing about the ACS removal process is that it has no rules, boundaries or protocols. The only one who makes the rules is the supervisor that is on the case at that time. Once a child is removed, ACS workers will say and do ANYTHING to keep the child in foster care. As we have discussed, children in foster care are worth tens of thousands of dollars to ACS annually. So when are kids removed? In our practice we have seen certain cases where kids are removed at a faster rate. The first set of cases is sexual abuse cases. If there is any hint of sexual abuse by anyone in the home, ACS will quickly remove the child. Second, physical abuse cases where there are visible injuries. ACS workers will accuse parents of being responsible for every single injury on a child's body. And if a parent does not know exactly how an injury happened the ACS worker will accuse the parents. Those knee scrapes on your child are all your fa...

 ACS workers are trained to obtain cooperation from parents. In this endeavor, they have what are called hard and soft tactics. One of the most effective soft tactics that they have is to tell the parent in the beginning of the investigation that they (the acs workers) doesn't even know why they are there and the investigation " should be closed soon."  This has the affect of putting the parent at ease. Then, the ACS worker will return to the home and state that their " supervisor" has told them they must take services from ACS or face a case being filed against them in family court. This scenario can vary a little but the outcome is always the same. The parent cannot understand how the case went from being closed to the parents having to do services. These tricks used by ACS workers are akin to the used car salesman using his "manager" as a higher authority. Unfortunatey, we are dealing with the safety of children and the rights of parents. The goal o...

 ACS workers have a very powerful tool against parents in child abuse investigations. When an ACS workers interviews a child and is not given the answers that will allow him to charge the parents with child abuse, they will conduct a Child Advocacy Center interview. The process is as follows. The child is taken to a CAC center, where an "expert" interviewer will browbeat the child into admitting that the parents did something. As soon as a child says anything negative about the parent, the interview stops and the parent will be charged with child abuse. This is done to children as young as four. The interviews are recorded and presented in court. The interviewer is usually a recent college grad who has been given clear instructions to try and get "something" on the parents. To view some of these interviews is truly shocking. If a child says nothing happened he is not believed. If a child lies about various issues its put down as kid talk. The only thing that matters...