Foster Care Abuse and Neglect Cases

by Lawrence J. Buckfire larry@buckfirelaw.com

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Best Michigan personal injury lawyer winning highest settlements for injury accident victims in Michigan.

Michigan Personal Injury Lawyers often represent children that are victims of foster care abuse and foster care neglect. Children of foster care abuse often suffer serious physical injuries and lasting psychological and emotional injuries. You may be asking yourself how you can help a child who has been left to face the consequences of an inconceivable wrongdoing. You may want to seek justice for the child, and ensure that they receive coverage for their long-term medical and psychological needs, in addition to any compensation for pain and suffering.

According to the Michigan Department of Human Services, during the 2006 fiscal year, CPS specialists conducted 71,784 investigations and found evidence of abuse or neglect in 17,534 cases affecting more than 29,843 children. The most predominant forms of maltreatment are physical neglect and physical abuse. The perpetrator is almost always the parent in the home (78%), the parent out of the home (11%), another relative, sibling or household member. For a parent to use corporal punishment on their child is not a violation of state law. It becomes a matter of abuse if and when an injury occurs.

Michigan's Child Protection Law requires a termination petition to be filed if a parent, legal guardian, or custodian fails to protect from abuse or from someone else who abuses them. Michigan law defines the egregious cases to include the following:

• Abandonment of a young child.
• Criminal sexual conduct involving penetration, attempted penetration, or assault with intent to penetrate.
• Battering, torture, or other severe physical abuse.
• Loss of impairment of an organ or limb.
• Life threatening injury.
• Murder or attempted murder.

Children do have legal rights in these cases against the foster parent and often against both the governmental agency and any doctors and counselors who neglected to see the signs of abuse which resulted in the child being subjected to additional abuse. A complete investigation of the claim and docusments is necesarry to win the case.

Children may need foster care for a temporary or extended period of time. The primary goal during foster care is to reunite the child with his or her parents. The foster family plays an important role in the treatment plan for the child and family. Under the “team” approach, foster parents or relatives, together with the worker, attempt to provide the specific kind of help a child and his family need for reuniting the child with the parents. When the child cannot be reunited with the parents, the children are prepared for permanent placement, with relatives or non-related adoptive families. Under certain circumstances, a foster family may adopt children in their care. When adoption is not possible, the goal is to prepare the youth for independent living. Foster Care and Adoption

GLOSSARY

Direct-consent adoption The instance in which birth parents identify, before the birth, the person(s) to whom they will release the child for adoption.

Foster care Temporary full-time care of children by person(s) other than their parents.

Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange (M.A.R.E.) An organization that tracks adoption-eligible permanent court and state wards with special needs, produces a monthly photo book and maintains a Web site featuring children in state care who are awaiting adoption, and recruits families for children with special needs.

Open adoption The instance in which the biological and adoptive parents know one another and may maintain some form of contact after the adoption.

Relative care/adoption The care or adoption of a child by an adult who, by marriage, blood, or adoption, is the child's relative (e.g., grandparent, sibling, step sibling, uncle, aunt); also called kinship care/adoption).

Special-needs children Children who have physical, emotional, or mental impairments often resulting from abuse or neglect.

Voluntary-release adoption The instance in which a child's birth parents release the child to a private adoption agency, and s/he is adopted from the agency.