NEW YORK CITY ACS DEFENSE LAWYER

 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...

Our clients were deathly afraid of their foster son who had attacked and savagely beaten his father. ACS demanded that the parents meet with the son to plant for his future. As the attorneys, we contacted ACS and advised that we would represent the parents. ACS refused to have any contact with our office and filed a neglect petition against the parents. At trial, Judge Michael Milsap wrongly agreed with ACS. The unanimous court overturned his decision. Real below. Renwick, J.P., Gische, Kapnick, Singh, JJ. 9809- 9809A In re Elijah M., A Child under the Age of Eighteen Years, etc., Robin M., et al., Respondents-Appellants, Administration for Children’s Services, Petitioner-Respondent. _________________________ Law Office of Stephen N. Preziosi, P.C., New York, (Stephen N. Preziosi of counsel), for appellants. Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Carolyn Walther of counsel), f...

ACS Commissioner, David Hansell stating In an interview that ACS workers have "tablets" in the field. This is simply not true. In our 20 years we have never seen an acs worker with tablets. ACS workers could easily record parent interviews but refuse to do so because they can later claim that parents made statements that they did not make. FIGHTACS.COM BRONXACSLAWYER.COM NYCACSLAWYER.COM

The answer is wherever the ACS worker decides. Upon first meeting the parents, the ACS worker will pry and ask as many questions as possible about the family as possible. This will help them reach their goal of demanding that parents attend classes and training. The favorite topic of ACS workers is when they can allege that there has been domestic violence in front of the children. The worker will then manufacture a case of abuse against the parents. Parents are  often shocked at the lies that ACS workers will accuse the parents of. If you are visited by an ACS worker contact an attorney at once. DO NOT SPEAK TO ACS WORKERS. FIGHTACS.COM BROOKLYNACSATTORNEY.COM

The biggest tool in ACS workers arsenal is the ability to mislead nervous parents by lying to them about the nature of the allegations against them and the ever-present threat of removing their children. ACS workers rely on the parent's fear in order to force the parents to comply with their demands. Here are some things ACS workers will demand from parents: - Drug tests. - Signed HIPPA forms - Home visits - Parenting classes Do not fall for their lies. Contact an attorney as soon as ACS workers contact you. FIGHTACS.COM

The shock of having ACS accuse you of child abuse is often overwhelming to parents. Now they must deal with the NYC Family Court. To begin with, every county has its own Family Court. They are often crowded, loud and there is simply no order. Once a  parent actually enters the courtroom they will soon realize ALL of the power belongs to the judge. There are no juries in New York Family Court. This allows ACS to tailor their cases to a specific judge. Over the years ACS has learned how to intimidate and coerce judges into accepting their way of doing business. We often hear in conferences " This is how things are in Family Court." Because no juries ever get to hear a case, it is a very insular system that does not receive the scrutiny that it deserves. It is simply outrageous that if a person is injured in a car acciden, a jury decides if they receive money, but if the state tries to remove your child, only a judge decides that. Next, the adjourn dates last over a year in mo...

The most common question we get from our clients is; why is ACS doing this to us? The simple answer is that ACS is a highly dysfunctional agency with incompetent leadership that is allowed to abuse parents in NYC. IN addition to this callous incompetence, ACS must keep its numbers up in order to justify the billions of dollars it receives from the city and state. Just like every organization, ACS must justify its existence. This is accomplished by accusing as many parents as possible of abuse and then putting thise parents into "services". At the end of the year ACS writes a report and states that they have helped all of these families and their funding should be increased.  The more parents they "help" the more money they receive, thus keeping their jobs secure. This is why we see many cases being shared b y ACS workers because in places like Manhattan there is not enough of a caseload to support the staff. It's a smoke and mirrors game that ACS workers play to...

In order for someone to become a judge in New York City, a long process needs to take place. Thus, obtaining a judgeship is very prestigious and also allows one to have a profound impact on the lives of the parties that come before you. Nowhere is this more true, then in Family Court . Custody, visitation, parental rights are all up to the judge. There are no juries to decide anything. One of the biggest fears of a Family Court judge is to return a child to a parent in a neglect case, and the parent injuring or killing the child. This has happened in the past, and unfortunately, statistics tell us it will happen again. This is the greatest weapon ACS has. It takes courage for a judge to stand up to this dysfunctional agency. Fortunately, the judges of Family court are up to the task and mostly are independent thinkers that look at one case at a time. Brooklynacslawyer.com

We often hear from our clients that they have tried to prove to ACS that they are good parents and ACS workers simply will not listen. The reason for this is very simple. The ACS agenda is to attack as many parents as possible and place as many children as possible in Foster Care. This both secures their jobs and their funding. parents usually find that ACS workers simply lie about what the parents or children have said to ACS. The solution is to speak to an attorney BEFORE speaking to ACS workers. This assures that your rights will be protected and your children will not be removed. Brooklynacslawyer.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

The ACS worker has a standard lie that they will tell a parent. This is called the 60 day lie. The ACS worker will tell the parent hat the investigation will only be open for 60 days, as per state law. In fact, the ACS workers will keep the investigations open for much longer. The main reason for this is trying to find something to blame the parents for. ACS will keep digging until they find anything they can attack the parent with. This lie is simply used to bring the parents guard down which then allows the ACS worker to come in and make more demands. Do not fall for these falsehoods by the ACS worker.

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...

ACS workers will use all sorts of tactics to obtain compliance from a parent. Here are some of the most common we encounter in our practice. THREATEN TO TAKE YOU TO COURT- This is the top ACS lie. ACS workers generally want to do as little work as possible. Filing a court petition takes effort and interaction with attorneys. This is a very effective threat against parents. The vast majority of parents will comply once threatened with this action. THE INVESTIGATION WILL LAST 60 DAYS- This is a simply lie to get the parent at ease. After the sixty days are up, the parent will assume that the investigation is over. This is simply not the case. ACs does not adhere to an schedule or regualtions. The investigation goes on as long as they need it to. MY SUPERVISOR SAYS SO- This is called the higher authority trick. The ACS worker will state that the supervisor is demanding more information from the parent. The fact is that ACS supervisors are there to help the worker attack the paren...

As every organization, ACS has its bureaucratic needs. The most important thing to ACS is to keep and expand its budget. They receive millions and millions of dollars from state and federal sources. In order to keep up the appearance that they are trying to "help" the children of NYC, they must show annual reports that show how many families they have " helped." Let us be clear, to actually help a struggling family requires expertise and a commitment that ACS workers do not posses. Thus, they are left with the way easier option of making pretend to help, already functioning families. This is the reason why parents are bullied into "programs. ACS knows that if they can throw a family into a year long program, they can then claim that they have "fixed" the parents and continue to receive their funding. It is the equivalent of washing a car that is already clean. This is the root of all of the ACS tactics and pressure to get parents into these programs....

The dismal truth is that ACS workers receive virtually no training in doing what can be argued is the most important job the state can do- the protection of children. ACS has a long and horrific history of children dying under their supervision. The city of New York is so desperate to have ACS staffed that they will hire almost anyone that can meet the most minimal credentials. As a whole ACS workers are abusive arrogant and very poorly trained. The main concern of an ACS worker is to check the boxes and make it appear as though they are helping families in need. However, to truly help a struggling family requires very difficult work. This is not work that ACS workers are willing to engage in. They have failed the children of New York many times. One need to just look at the Nixmarry Brown case as an example of how dysfunctional this agency is.  So if ACS contacts you, stand up for your right and fight back against their lies and manipulation.