Ministerial versus Discretionary Acts or Omissions in Child Welfare Litigation
Too often the child welfare system fails our children, especially foster children, leaving our most vulnerable population at risk of harm. Many children in the welfare system are injured or even killed because “[t]he system frequently fails to provide children with stable, secure care” and “fails to meet foster children’s basic medical, psychological, and emotional needs.”
This system-wide failure is the result of several recurring problems, which are on the rise, including: inadequate investigation of prospective foster parents and their families, placing children in inappropriate homes, overcrowded foster homes, placing children with first-time foster parents who are inexperienced and become overwhelmed, and inadequate supervision of foster homes. These recurring problems have resulted in harm to those children under the care of the child welfare system, leading many of them to seek redress in the courts.
In the field of public child welfare services, then, exactly which acts or omissions are ministerial, and which are discretionary? Each state has its own unique constitution, case law, statutes, regulations, child welfare manuals, and structure. This complexity does not allow for categorical rules on this subject matter, but this article nonetheless attempts to offer some meaningful guidelines on which state actions are discretionary and which are ministerial.
The Role of Claims Adjuster and Defense Counsel in Human Service Litigation
When a human service agency is sued, litigation is usually resolved through settlement. Who pays the bill? Very often, it’s an insurance company. Claims that involve human service agencies vary widely. Whether dealing with a simple workplace accident, serious injuries and fatalities, or allegations of negligence or professional malpractice, an insurance company’s priority is to provide swift, effective resolution of every claim. The company evaluates which claims should be legally defended and which warrant early settlement. The person making these decisions will be
an insurance company claims adjuster. Seemingly anonymous, claims adjusters are ultimately responsible for deciding how much money, if any, will be paid out in settlement.
The claims process can be complicated. A good defense counsel must avoid any legal missteps while balancing the needs of the policyholder and the insurance company. All in all, this is not an easy assignment.
Mission: Improbable Getting Exonerated From a Child Sexual Abuse Conviction
Extensive citation of social science research is unnecessary for us to know that child sexual abuse is one of the most underreported crimes. Likewise, most people would be hard pressed to think of a crime as despicable as child sexual abuse, and we have few qualms about strict sentences for such offenders. So when an Orange County, California, Superior Court judge recently sentenced a child rapist to 10 years instead of the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, the community was outraged. Tens of thousands of people called for the judge to resign.
It happens—albeit rarely—that people are wrongfully convicted of child sexual abuse and are later exonerated. The National Registry of Exonerations (NRE), a project of the University of Michigan Law School “provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989—cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence.”
This article looks at the 181 cases of people listed in the NRE registry as exonerated for “child sex abuse” from 2010 through August 2015.
Social Work and the Courts (3rd edition)
Social Work and the Courts is a collection of important and cutting-edge court decisions in the field of human services, now in its third edition. Pollack and Kleinman present an array of legal cases in everyday language, with clear explanation of the facts and issues, and in-depth examinations of the reasoning and implications of each verdict. This new edition includes over twenty new cases, all of which happened between 2010 and 2014, making this one of the most significant and timely investigations of how social work and the law intersect. Special attention is paid to recent rulings in child welfare and social worker liability. The dissection and analysis of these influential cases makes this volume an excellent teaching tool and an essential resource for both social workers and policy makers.
Do States Adequately Oversee People With Developmental Disabilities in Community Settings?
Like most parents, my good friend and his wife are concerned about their child’s future. They know they need to prepare her to be on her own one day.
My friends are also scared. Not because he recently had a near-fatal heart attack. Their fear is more deep-rooted. Their 13-year-old daughter has Down syndrome and they are apprehensive about her future.
Specifically, they are worried that one day, some unscrupulous person will take advantage of her sexually. This fear is not far-fetched. According to an article in Journal of Family Violence, among the developmentally ...
Videotaping Child Sexual Abuse Investigation Interviews
This article investigates the extent to which departments of human services should be mandated by statute to videotape child sexual abuse investigative interviews. While numerous states instruct that videotaping may be done, most do so only by regulation or administrative directive.
Anonymous versus Identified Reporting of Child Maltreatment
The child abuse and neglect hotline rings. All other factors being equal, does it matter if the reporter is anonymous or identified?
Effective child maltreatment investigation relies to a significant extent upon information supplied by anonymous reporters. Reliance on these reporters presents the child protection, law enforcement, and judicial systems with a challenge: giving proper weight to such reports while safeguarding everyone’s constitutional rights.
During FFY 2012, child protective services agencies received 3.4 million referrals involving approxim...