NEW YORK CITY ACS DEFENSE LAWYER

 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...

To falsely report a crime or event to a public entity is a crime in New York State. See Penal law 240.50(4). ACS receives thousands of calls a day about suspected child abuse in New York City. Many of them are demonstrably false. In fact in once case, our client's accuser told the ACS worker that she lied and would continue to make false calls. So what does ACS do about these false reports? The answer is absolutely nothing. ACS has one agenda- to accuse as many parents of child abuse and keep their funding and make it appear as they are protecting children. They fail at every step. The children who are in real need are ignored and good parents are attacked in order to  pad the ACS statistics. The names of the dead children still haunt us today. If ACS contacts you, do not speak to them. Contact an attorney as soon as possible. WWW.NYCACSLAWYER.COM WWW.BROOKLYNACSLAWYER.COM WWW.BROOKLYNACSATTORNEY.COM

The NYC Department of Investigations has issued a report detailing how acs has failed. The report details just how incompetent ACS is as an organization. The simple fact that they do not have the proper staff to work on weekend. It is simply shocking that ACS has to be told that they must have staff working on weekends. “The investigation found that despite ACS having the mandate, resources and information to urgently find Jaden, ACS did not find Jaden before he was allegedly beaten into a coma on Monday, November 28, 2016,” the report said. “Specifically, DOI determined that while ACS publicly stated that it only obtained the correct address for Jaden on Monday, November 28th, ACS workers in fact had access to databases that would have provided the correct address for Jaden as early as Saturday, November 26th, when they first received the allegations of abuse and neglect.” This is the second report in 10 years. The first was in 2007. ACS keeps failing and our children k...

The ACS worker uses the home visit as the first tool of intimidation. They will appear at your front door at any hour. Their goal is to catch the parent off guard. This allows them to move on to the next phase of the process. Once the ACS worker is allowed in, they will usually not show any identification nor will they give you a business card. The ACS worker's goal is to remain as anonymous as possible, while making demands of the parents. The first demand they will make is to claim that you MUST speak to them about your family. These conversations will not be recorded in any way, so as to allow the ACS worker to claim a parent has made certain admissions. It is at this point that parents should be the most on guard. The most important thing to do is to RECORD, RECORD, RECORD. Cell phone cameras are perfect for this. Advise the ACS worker that they will be recorded and that the law allows you to do this. As soon as possible, contact an attorney for help and make no statements t...

The first tools that an ACS worker learns to use against parents is threats and intimidation. This is a very effective strategy. ACS workers can remove a child from a home based on their opinion alone. It is with this threat, that parents are attacked with and demanded that they comply with ACS directives. There are two very important rights that ACS workers are most afraid of. First, in New York state, you , as an individual, have the right to record your conversations as long as you're part of the conversation. With the rise of cell phone cameras this is now easier then ever. As soon as an ACS worker begins to contact you, record all of the interactions. Let the ACS worker know you are recording all of the interactions. You will be threatened and attacked for doing so. Many of our clients have been told by ACS workers that it is illegal for them to be taped. This is simply not the law. State and federal police agencies record criminals on a daily basis.  Record, record, record!! ...

We are often asked how effective court appointed lawyers are in the  fight for parents rights in Family Court against ACS. To begin with, the vast majority of court appointed lawyers are very experienced. They have been plying their trade for a long time and understand how the courts work. Second, they are familiar with ACS policies and procedures and can guide a parent along this path. In the two areas that they fall short is in attention and stopping ACS abuses. Since their clients are indigent people who cannot afford an attorney, they have a very large caseload. This caseload does not allow them to give the necessary time that is required to properly defend an ACS case. Also, and most importantly, they are not aggressive enough in defending their client's rights against ACS. The biggest example is that they allow their clients to speak to ACS workers without them being present. This is simply unacceptable. ACS workers have a policy that they do not speak to attorneys. Why? b...

As we have discussed in the past, ACS receives a  good amount of cases from the New York City Public Schools. The bureaucracy in these schools is such that as soon as they see an opportunity to contact ACS, they do. This protects them from further liability by passing the buck to another incompetent state agency. THE NYC DOE is a large dysfunctional system focused on protecting its funding and turf. Parents must be aware of this alliance between the ACS workers and the administrators. They routinely join forces to attack parents and force ACS into a parent's life. Be aware of them. FIGHTACS.COM

ACS is one agency consisting of lawyers and ACS workers. However, when a case is filed against a parent in court, this becomes a real problem. The ACS workers will continue to speak to the parent as they are trying to help them, while the ACS lawyer in court finds ways to attack them, The ACS worker will often report back to the ACS lawyer negative things about the parent. This is the equivalent of a detective arresting you and weekly visiting your home while your trial is going on. ACS workers are trained to avoid the fact that clients have lawyers. The best remedy for this is to refuse to speak to ACS workers about the case without your lawyer present. You can learn more at BROOKLYNACSLAWYER.COM

ACS uses several tactics to coerce parents to settle a case in court. The first weapon they have is time. ACS will drag the case on for months and months in hopes of beating down the parents. After a while, most parents are tired of the abuse and harassment and simply take a "deal" to get the case over with. The next and most used tactic is accusing the parents of horrific violations of child abuse in the beginning and letting them plead guilty to something less to get rid of the case. This makes it appear as if the ACS lawyers are reasonable. Also, despite the fact that ACS is one agency, the ACS lawyers call the ACS workers their clients. This allows ACS lawyers to play many roles in negotiations and allows the ACS lawyer to blame the ACS worker if anything should go wrong. No other city agency with their own attorneys walks int court and says they represent themselves. This is pure gamesmanship. Many parents are very dismayed once they learn how dysfunctional the ACS lawy...

Once a petition is filed ACS will attack the parents in two different ways. The ACS worker will visit the home and write reports for the court. These reports are given to the judge to advise the judge what the parents are doing in the case. This allows the ACS worker to manafacture allegations against the parents and present them to the judge as fact. Judges in family court rely on these reports when making decisions. Parents are often shocked at the content of these reports. In one case, we had an ACS worker claim that the parent pushed the worker out of the home. It was simply a lie. Ultimately ACS dismissed the case after a year of attacking the mother. Another tactic is to file motions on Friday at 4pm and email them to the attorney or file them the day before court so the opposing attorney has little time to react. These are some of the basic tricks used against parents in court. We should always be vigilant when ACS is attacking our clients in court. Too many judges simply take A...