This blog will explain why you should hire a DCF lawyer, what makes a good DCF lawyer, and how to find the right attorney for your family.
Table of Contents
- Can I Have a DCF lawyer when dealing with MA DCF?
- Do I Need a Lawyer when dealing with MA DCF?
- What are some mistakes I can make when dealing with DCF without a lawyer?
- What Can DCF do to You if You Don’t Have a Lawyer?
- How Can a DCF Lawyer Help Me Before DCF Contacts Me?
- How Can You use Your Constitutional Rights to Fight MA DCF?
- What Should You Look For in A Lawyer?
- What to Look for in a DCF Lawyer’s Office?
- Why Do You Need to Have a Lawyer who Listens and Empathizes?
- Why Do You Need an Attorney That Explains Things to You?
- What does good communication between you and your DCF lawyer look like?
- Why is good communication so important between you and your MA DCF Attorney?
- How can you make sure your attorney is a good communicator?
- How Should Your Lawyer Act Towards the MA DCF When You Are Fighting Them?
- Why Does Your DCF Lawyer Need to be Competent and Specialized?
- How Can You Tell That an Attorney is Competent?
- Why Do You Need to Trust Your Attorney?
- Why Should My Attorney Have a Clear Plan?
- How should a good DCF Attorney Act Towards your entire family?
- What Should I do if I have been Given a Court-Appointed DCF Lawyer?
- Can I Change My Court Appointed DCF Lawyer if I want to?
- Where can I find the Best Attorney?
- What is the best fee agreement to make with an attorney?
- Why should I avoid an hourly rate fee agreement?
- What is the best way to pay for an attorney?
How to Find the Best Lawyer to Quickly Fight MA DCF with Positive Results?
You just received a phone call from an unknown number. The call is from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family (MA DCF). They are calling you with allegations that you abused or neglected your child. Immediately, you feel anxious, shocked, and terrified.
If you’re feeling confused, lost and overwhelmed for hours, days, or even weeks after that phone call, you are not alone. DCF has not given you any guidance, and a million questions are swarming your head. You are asking yourself, “what did I do wrong? Am I a bad parent? Who reported me to DCF? Do I need a lawyer?”
You may be thinking this is all a big mistake or misunderstanding, and that these allegations cannot be true–you would never hurt yours or any other child. Do not take these allegations lightly. MA DCF always takes child abuse/neglect allegations seriously. You should too. When DCF gets involved with your family, they have a plan.
They are coming to investigate you. What is your plan for DCF? When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Be prepared for your DCF case. Do not let DCF take your child away from you and place them into DCF foster care. Your best chance to successfully fight DCF and win is to hire a lawyer.
Can I Have a DCF Lawyer When Involved with MA DCF?
Yes, you can absolutely have a lawyer to represent you during your DCF case. You are entitled to a lawyer, attorney or counsel at any stage of your involvement with DCF. That means you can hire a lawyer when you first get the call from DCF, before or during a DCF home visit, and after a DCF home visit.
MA DCF’s parents pamphlet, which the Department is supposed to give every parent who is involved with DCF, clearly states that anyone involved with DCF can hire a lawyer at any time.
DCF will not tell you this directly, however. When your DCF case goes to court, an attorney may be appointed to represent you. You can always hire your own private attorney to handle DCF in court.
Do I Need a lawyer when dealing with MA DCF?
You do not need a lawyer when dealing with DCF, but you should have one. It is within your rights for you to represent yourself for your DCF case, but this will probably work against you. As a parent, you are probably not aware of all your rights during a DCF home visit, investigation or assessment.
Remember that DCF is an extension of law enforcement. Anything you say to them can be used against you to support allegations of abuse or neglect. You must understand that DCF allegations of child abuse or child neglect can lead you to lose your children to DCF foster care. DCF can completely terminate your parental rights over your child.
‘When the allegations do not lead to DCF removing your child from your home, you can still lose your job, reputation and money. These allegations can also prevent you from ever working with children professionally; you will never get to be a teacher, bus driver, babysitter, or pediatrician.
Hiring a lawyer can help you understand what is happening and guide you on a path to saving your family. An experienced lawyer who specializes in will have an easy, step-by-step, guided plan on how to get DCF out of your life without losing your children to DCF foster care. Your lawyer should make the fight against DCF process easy DCF appeal process .
While MA DCF does not have to be your enemy, they are definitely not your friend. Your DCF lawyer should help bridge all the gaps between you and MA DCF.
What Are Some Mistakes Parents and Caretakers Make when Dealing With DCF Without a Lawyer?
When dealing with DCF without a lawyer, parents and caretakers make mistakes that lower their chances of winning their DCF case. Sometimes, the social worker seems so nice and friendly that parents get too comfortable with their social worker. Parents can get extremely nervous and start telling their social worker everything. DCF can eventually hold that information against them, and parents can talk themselves into having the allegations of child abuse or neglect against them “supported”.
Having an experienced DCF attorney at your side will prevent you from disclosing unnecessary information which can hurt you later on in your case. Your DCF lawyer will tell you which questions by DCF to answer and which questions you should never answer. Your DCF lawyer will also tell you how to speak to DCF, what to wear when DCF sees you, and how your house should look when DCF comes to visit, among other things.
When you mention one of the following, DCF may use it against you later on:
- Drinking
- Drug addiction
- Mental health history
- Medication regimen
- Prescription drug abuse
- Domestic violence
- Suicide
- Pornography
Discussing any of the above with a DCF social worker can lead to DCF removing your children from your home. DCF can also use this information to file criminal charges against you. Without an attorney present, DCF may demand that you sign blank releases, action plans, or service agreements.
DCF may also demand to interview your child alone. You have rights against DCF when they ask you to do these things. You should always consult with an experienced DCF attorney before doing anything DCF asks you to do.
Why Should You NOT Speak to DCF without an Attorney?
There are many reasons why you should NOT speak to DCF without an attorney present. Dealing with DCF can be extremely dangerous for you and your family. You should not speak to DCF without having an attorney present because DCF can:
- Take your children without a search warrant or court order
- Ask a judge to terminate your parental rights
- Place your children into foster care where they will be raised by complete strangers called foster parents
- Limit or stop your visitation with your children
- Removes more than one of your children, they can separate them in the foster care system
- Put your name on the DCF central registry of alleged perpetrators after supporting allegations of abuse/neglect against you. This can lead you to a lose your job and reputation
- Access highly confidential records to uncover sensitive information about you and your children
- Give your personal information to local, state, and federal law enforcement without your permission
- Send your name to the District Attorney’s Office and file criminal charges against you which can result in jail time.
- Support child abuse/neglect allegations against you without telling you that you are being investigated
- Interview your children at school without your permission
How Can a DCF Lawyer Help Me Before DCF Contacts Me?
A lot happens between the time DCF receives a report and when they end up reaching out to you. First, a mandated, non-mandated or anonymous reporter calls DCF and reports an incident of child abuse or neglect to MA DCF. Then, DCF must look into the allegations and see if they are worth investigating. They will look into your past to find any evidence of a pattern of child abuse or neglect. DCF will only contact you if they believe that the allegations against you are worthy of further investigation.
If this is the case, they will screen-in the report. They will then contact you for more information and to conduct a 51B investigation. Your DCF lawyer can look at the 51A report containing the allegations against you, and explain exactly what the report means for your future. Your lawyer can possibly stop DCF from investigating you. Reports are sometimes made from someone who is spiteful, confused, or misinformed.
An experienced lawyer can notice if that is the case, and use that information to get MA DCF out of your life without DCF investigating your family. When the 51A report indicates no concrete evidence of abuse or neglect, your lawyer can explain to you that there should not be a 51B investigation. If DCF did a 51B investigation and wrongfully supported the allegations against you, your lawyer should be ready to stand up against DCF.
How Can You use Your Constitutional Rights to Fight MA DCF?
Your parental right to you children is one of the oldest protected rights by the due process clause of the United States Constitution. The Massachusetts Declaration of Rights similarly recognizes this critical legal right. Your children also have legal rights. If you do not exercise your rights, it is like you have no rights at all.
The state law requires DCF to interpret the statutory scheme governing Massachusetts’ child protection system. State law requires the Department to protect children from harm. This harm must be caused by the “absence, inability, inadequacy or destructive behavior” of children’s parents or caretaker. State law also requires that DCF first direct its efforts to strengthen and encourage “family life for the protection and care of children.”
DCF must also make efforts to assist and encourage families to use all available resources to care for their children. In many cases, MA DCF does not strictly follow these laws and it can hurt your child and you. A lawyer will make sure that you know your rights and the rights of your children, and that these rights are respected.
What Should You Look For in A DCF Lawyer?
There are many things you should look for from a lawyer, from experience to empathy. Your case is unique, so it will require an attorney that has the set of skills that will be best for you and your family during your fight with MA DCF. Here are some traits to look for when looking for an MA DCF attorney:
- The attorney exclusively specializes in MA DCF cases
- The counsel has done many cases pertaining to your specific needs
- The attorney with listen to you and understand you and your situation
- The attorney will take the time to explain what is happening each step of the way
- The lawyer will be clear about fees from the beginning
- The lawyer will be available whenever you need them
- The attorney will always be present each step of the way
- The lawyer should be an effective communicator
- There is a natural connection between both of you
- The attorney prepares you with a guided plan
Is It Important to Hire an Experienced DCF Lawyer?
You need an experienced lawyer that only specializes in DCF law. When a lawyer is not truly focused on MA DCF, they may not know enough to help you. A specialized lawyer will know everything there is to know about dealing with any type of child abuse or neglect allegations.
They will know each step of the process, what DCF should and should not do, a step-by-step plan that works in fighting MA DCF, and they will know how to be there for you and your family, whatever you may need. With their years of experience, they can best represent clients such as yourself.
What to Look for in a DCF Lawyer’s Office?
Many law firms deal with family law, but also a variety of other types of law. You want a law firm that works specifically with MA DCF family law because they will have the most knowledge and experience to help you and your family. The law firm should have an attorney who has many years of experience in exclusively specializing in DCF cases only.
Also, every law firm has its own culture. You want to make sure you like the energy of the office before committing to hiring your DCF lawyer. The ideal law office will make you feel comfortable in this most uncomfortable of times, dealing with the DCF nightmare. Request a tour of the law office to look at it, yourself. The office should be professional and organized. You may want to take note of the staff as well; the staff should look busy but also happy and enjoying the work they are doing. So make sure the entire law office has a friendly and trustworthy environment.
Why Do You Need to Have a Lawyer who Listens and Empathizes?
Many lawyers do not take the time and make the effort to listen to their clients. But this is one of the most important things they need to do. Your attorney needs to listen to you to both understand your wants and needs, but also to fully understand the situation of the case. When fighting MA DCF, you are dealing with one of the most stressful times of your life. Your attorney should understand this and be there to listen and empathize with you. They need to take the time to understand what you are going through so they can best help you and advocate for you in your scary situation.
Take the time to talk to a potential attorney for a couple of minutes before choosing them to see if you think they have the ability to listen to you. If the attorney has worked with MA DCF cases many times before, it is more likely that they will be able to empathize with you and your unique MA DCF case. They have seen the pressure and stress these cases put on families and will be more attuned to your feelings.
Why Do You Need an Attorney That Explains Things to You?
When you have an attorney, you should have someone that will explain everything that is happening, all the complicated terms, and make sure that you do not feel lost in the process. Pursuant to Rule 1.4 of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct, it is right and ethical for an attorney to share simple and important information to their client.
Since the potential outcomes of cases can be so grave, it is of the utmost importance that you understand the consequences, the process, what you can do, what your attorney can and should do, and how to best behave in your fight with MA DCF.
What does good communication between you and your DCF Lawyer look like?
People’s biggest complaint when working with a lawyer is that they do not respond to phone class. A good lawyer will be accessible at all times and flexible to meet your needs. You will be their top priority and always there to respond. Ideally, you and your attorney have agreed upon a flat fee so you do not need to worry about being charged for every interaction no matter how big or small. Your attorney should answer or respond to every call, email, message or any other non-written or written communication you send them in a timely manner. This makes them best able to represent clients. They also should be able to answer every question you have.
A good lawyer might even give out their personal cell phone number so that they can be reachable 24/7. They also will be there for you every step of the way and communicate with you what is expected of you during the process, what is expected of DCF, and what is expected of the attorney.
Why is good communication so important between you and your MA DCF Attorney?
Lack of communication is a problem in almost every relationship, especially between an attorney and a client. If your lawyer isn’t updating you on what’s going on in your case, you might be left thinking they’re not 100% on your case. Worse, you might miss important updates or deadlines that could make or break your case.
The best attorneys will discuss a plan and the strategy, provide a timeline for the major events in your case, and give you a direct line of communication to them. You need to be able to talk to your attorney and they need to be there for you every step of the way.
Remember, DCF can show up at your house with no warning or prior notice any day during the week, and at any time of day. They can and have shown up to homes on weekends and late at nights. Sometimes, DCF brings a police officer with them to scare parents.
When DCF shows up to your home unannounced, you may act in a way that DCF views as unstable or harmful for a child. For example, refusing to cooperate with DCF can lead the Department to believe you are hiding something from them and that you are secretly abusing your children. When DCF shows up to your home unannounced, be sure to have your DCF lawyer’s personal cell phone number on speed dial so they can give you advice on what to do.
How can you make sure your attorney is a good communicator?
You should be able to tell immediately if an attorney is a good communicator. When you first get on the phone with them, you can get a sense of whether they are listening and understanding you.
You can also find out if their way of explaining and planning works for you right away. If the attorney is hard to get on the phone from the beginning, they will not get better at responding over time, but probably worse.
They should give you multiple ways to communicate with you including their landline, office number, cell phone number, email, address, and fax number. They should also give you their assistants contact information.
How Should Your Lawyer Act Towards DCF During your Case?
You may feel like MA DCF is an evil enemy. That is completely understandable. DCF has the power to alter your life forever so it is important for you and your attorney to maintain a respectful relationship between MA DCF and yourselves. You want an attorney who has a solid understanding of MA DCF’s rules, policies and procedures.
While you don’t want someone who is close to the enemy, you still want them to have a respectful relationship so that MA DCF is more inclined to help you. Furthermore, you want a lawyer who will never be afraid to stand up to MA DCF and who will not shy from taking on the large government entity when you are right and MA DCF is wrong.
Why Does Your Lawyer Need to be Competent and Specialized?
When your attorney is competent and specialized, they have a step-by-step plan to guide you through your case. Make sure you hire a lawyer who has dealt with your type of situation before. Ask them about what kinds of allegations they have handled in the past.
Are they experienced in cases dealing with emotional neglect, medical neglect, educational neglect or any other form of child neglect? What about verbal abuse, sexual abuse or any other form of child abuse? Ask your lawyer these questions before hiring them so that you know you are getting the most effective legal representation.
You can like your attorney as a person, but if they are not competent or specialized in MA DCF, they cannot be your best advocate. Many attorneys specialize in five (5) to ten (10) or more areas of law. If your attorney is not strictly specialized in MA DCF, they do not have enough experience or knowledge to be your best counsel.
How Can You Tell That an Attorney is Competent?
The best way to tell if a lawyer is competent is by understanding the nature of the cases they have handled in the past. Does the lawyer strictly specialize in MA DCF cases, or do they practice many areas of law? Have they worked enough MA DCF cases to fully understand the process and help you? Have they been successful in fighting MA DCF in the past? All these questions should lead you to an experienced and powerful MA DCF attorney.
The best way to find answers to these questions is to look at the attorney’s past cases. The lawyer should give you access to testimonials of past clients that can give you a concrete understanding of how effective the lawyer will be in helping you fight MA DCF. From client testimonials you can learn about the lawyer’s style, personality, competency, knowledge, empathy, and success rate.
A lawyer exclusively specialized in MA DCF cases will have a full understanding of the process and be able to best help you fight for your family and case. An attorney who has been successful in many MA DCF cases will be your best advocate because they will have the most knowledge and competency to help you. They may not be able to help you with all of your legal issues, but they will do the best job at dealing with MA DCF.
Why Do You Need to Trust Your Attorney?
You need to trust your attorney because this is one of the most important and stressful situations you can go through. The well being of your children and family is at risk, so you need someone that you can trust to support and be there for you. You should never put your family and loved ones at risk, so hiring an attorney that you can trust will ensure that you feel safe and put the state of your family in their hands.
Building trust can come from the counsel’s experience, past clients, personality, and a number of other factors. You may have to tell this person your deepest secret, and while it will be privileged information, you have to feel comfortable doing so. It is also important that the attorney trust you so they can best advocate for you with MA DCF and give you the best legal advice.
Why Should My Attorney Have a Clear Plan?
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. If you have the right attorney, they will have done at least hundreds if not thousands of previous cases working against MA DCF. They will know exactly what works and what does not work to the benefit of the parent or client.
They will have a solid plan and they will be able to tweak it for your unique needs, wants, and desires. This is vital because if you do not have a plan MA DCF can and will take advantage of that and you will be more likely to fail in your fight against MA DCF.
How Would a Good DCF Attorney Behave With Your Entire family?
A good, successful DCF attorney will put you and your children first. When there is a DCF allegation of child abuse or neglect against one family member, it affects the whole family. DCF will interview everyone in the family, and ask everyone extremely questions.
The best DCF attorneys will understand that the emotions run high when DCF is involved. It is important that you hire an attorney who sympathizes and empathizes with your concerns. The lawyer you choose should be someone who makes you and your family feel more comfortable dealing with DCF.
The DCF lawyer you choose should also make your children feel comfortable. Children are smart, and they can tell when they are being respected. During a traumatic DCF experience, it is vital that the children involved are treated with the utmost kindness.
Children have rights, just as parents and adults do. The best DCF attorney will make sure DCF does not violate the child’s rights. It is very difficult for children to answer personal questions about their parents made by a DCF social worker (a complete stranger). DCF social workers often ask a child leading questions, or twist their statements to fit DCF’s own narrative.
There are many cases where DCF claimed that a child said something they did not which led to a supported allegation of child abuse. Having a DCF lawyer guide you and your whole family through this process will ensure that your children are not saying potentially harmful things to DCF and that DCF is not twisting what your children said.
What Should I do if I have been Given a Court-Appointed DCF Lawyer?
When you have a court-appointed attorney assigned to your case, try to work with them. This attorney, licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, should have the skills, knowledge and expertise to handle DCF. Discuss your goals and form a plan with this attorney. Call, email, and write a letter to them asking to communicate about your desired goals with them and to create that step-by-step plan to getting your children back.
There are many outstanding court-appointed attorneys who have done a terrific job for their clients getting back their children. One of the many obstacles that happens is lack of communication. Please do not allow this lack of communication to ruin what should be a fruitful relationship with this outstanding court-appointed lawyer.
Can I Change My Court Appointed DCF Lawyer if I want to?
If you need to change lawyers after you have tried to communicate and work with your lawyer, you can. Your current attorney will have to file a motion to withdraw from the case. Each court has a different protocol on how to change lawyers so you will have to research this with your specific court, but it can be done.
Where can I find the Best Attorney?
Finding the best attorney may take some research. Focus your search on attorneys who exclusively specialize in MA DCF cases. You can use google to search for attorneys that might have their own practices or offices that focus just on MA DCF cases. You can also search for possible attorneys on review websites such as avvo.com, yelp.com, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Birdeye.com, or LawyerRatingz.com.
Another great way is to ask around to neighbors, friends, families or anyone else you can think of. These places have reviews of the attorneys from clients and can illustrate the attorney’s quality and experience. Using word of mouth can help you find someone that you can trust because someone you know has trusted them. Another way is to ask any other lawyers or know and trust if they know of any attorneys that are good and specialize only in MA DCF cases.
You can reach out to attorneys that look promising and talk to them a bit about your case if they are available. If there is a connection and you feel you can trust the lawyer based on their experience, their past cases, social proof, and your initial feelings about them, this is probably a good attorney for you. Of course, now you must consider the cost of the attorney.
What Payment Plan Should I Use When Selecting a DCF attorney?
Being involved with DCF is an extremely serious matter. So, you want to make sure money plays as little a role as possible when picking someone to advocate for you and your children.
There are many ways you can finance your lawyer without having upfront the amount of money. Many lawyers will even help you come up with a payment plan and allow you to pay in as many ways as possible for your convenience including:
- Cash payments
- Taking out a loan
- Borrowing from friends or family
- Credit card payments
- Asking for an advance on your paycheck
- Looking at what other assets you might have that can be turned into cash to pay for your attorney
The right attorney will help you make sure that you do not lose your parental rights, so anything you need to do to come up with the fair payment will be worth it.
Why is a Flat Fee Agreement the Best Payment Method?
A “flat fee agreement” is in the best interests of the client when hiring a lawyer. A flat fee tells the client exactly how much they are paying their lawyer for the whole case. In other words, the client is not billed every time they speak to the lawyer. They can communicate with their lawyer as much as they like without worrying about how about the bill for every conversation.
You can pay everything up front, or work out a payment plan with the lawyer. Set up schedule to pay your attorney, and make sure the schedule works for both of you. You will not be surprised with any additional costs that you were not aware of before.
A flat fee agreement indicates that the lawyer is very experienced in cases like yours. When attorneys offer a flat fee agreement, it means they know exactly how much work they have to do for your case. They will charge you based on what they know they have to do. A lawyer who charges a flat fee has a time tested, step-by-step plan to solving your issue.
The flat fee removes a lot of uncertainty, and allows the lawyer to completely focus on your case. The flat fee is also an incentive for the lawyer to end the case quickly; since the lawyer is not getting paid by the hour, they have no interest in keeping your case open.
Why should I avoid an hourly fee agreement?
The hourly fee agreement is exactly what it sounds like: the lawyer will bill you for every hour of work they do. You should avoid this kind of agreement. Though many lawyers offer an “hourly fee” agreement as a payment option, it is not in a client’s best interest.
This can leave a lot of doubt in a client’s mind. The client is not sure what they are really paying for, and if the lawyer is really worth the money. When a lawyer charges an hourly fee, it means that the longer the case goes on, the more money the attorney will take from you.
Paying your lawyer by the hour may have you questioning whether you are being properly represented by the lawyer, especially when facing issues related to parents’ rights against DCF. Also, you will not want to communicate with your lawyer so much when you are worried about paying for every email, or every phone call you make to them during a DCF investigation.
Also, a lawyer with an hourly rate has no incentive to end your case. The lawyer has incentive to draw your case out longer, so they can continue to bill you every step of the way. From a client’s perspective, it is like giving someone a blank check. You also will have a more troublesome time financing this expensive cost.
DISCLAIMER
You find yourself in this situation, it’s advisable to seek legal representation from a qualified attorney, like those at the Law Office of Kevin Seaver, who can advocate for your rights and guide you through the complex process of a DCF investigation.
Remember that the ultimate goal of DCF is to ensure the safety and well-being of children while supporting families in crisis.
Please note that this article does not create an Attorney-Client relationship between our law firm and the reader and is provided for informational purposes only. Information in this article does not apply to all readers.
Readers should not rely on this information as legal advice and should seek specific counsel from the attorney based on personal circumstances. Thank you.
Kevin Patrick Seaver is a Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer who represents parents against false child abuse allegations.
Massachusetts DCF Defense Lawyer Kevin Seaver has been successfully fighting false child abuse allegations since 1991.