Child Abuse; County CPS (Child Protective Services) Investigation/CaseAttorney Tricia Dwyer has been rated 'Superb' by Avvo for multiple years
Misc. Legal Questions & Attorney Tricia Dwyer's Answers: Legal question: What does a CPS lawyer do? ATTORNEY TRICIA DWYER'S ANSWER: CPS stands for Child Protective Services; every county in Minnesota has a CPA division. CPS may 'open an investigation'. A parent may contact me and ask me to help them privately. Parents can have worry and fear about talking with CPS, or even cooperating with them. Police, including detectives, may knock on their door. In some cases, a CPS Case Worker has been assigned and she/he will want my client to come to the local police office and sit down to talk. My work is to help and protect my parent-client. I provide reduced fee for a parent has a financial hardship, and there's usually one or more ways to curb and contain legal costs. A 'CHIPS' (Child In Need of Protective Services) is not common, and 'TPR' (Termination of Parental Rights) is not common. Excellent question. LEGAL QUESTION: I told CPS I'd agree with what they say and so my son went to his father's for now. I asked for him back, and CPS told me she had to talk to lawyer and she'd call me back. She hasn't called back but she told me I had full custody still so can I just take my son now? ATTORNEY TRICIA DWYER'S ANSWER:Hello. I wasn't clear on your question, but it seems as though you're sayinq that you have been voluntarily cooperating with your county CPS (Child Protective Services), and your Case Worker told you she needed to discuss your concerns with one of the attorneys. It seems what you're indicating is that you need to email your Case Worker and (politely) ask her if she has the answers, and, if so, what are they. Take care. Legal question: My court case says it's 27JV22-xxxxxx and it's CHIPS. What does all this mean? Attorney Tricia Dwyer's answer: Hello-excellent question! Most likely this is a confidential court record - 'JV' is an abbreviation for juvenile. 'CHIPS' refers to county child protection being involved in the legal concerns. You wrote it's your records, so I urge you not to post on any public websites about this, but please do choose one attorney with whom you feel great safety and trust and have private, one to one, legal advice. Legal question: To keep CPS out of my life, I voluntarily signed custody of my son over to my aunt. I want him back. Attorney Tricia Dwyer's answer: If I were to help you, I'd talk with you to learn more details, and one starting point would be that I look over the legal papers that you signed. Many times people haven't kept 'old' papers, but that is not likely to be a problem ('CPS' refers to county child protective services). LEGAL QUESTION: I signed over rights to my kids, one is special needs. CPS pressured me. It was TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) and CHIPS and my kids were in foster care a long time. I was not sober when I signed my kids away. I'm sober now. Can I get them back? ATTORNEY TRICIA DWYER'S ANSWER: No lawyer is allowed to promise any client a particular result or outcome. I'm a 'mom' of now grown 'kids' including special needs kids; I feel utmost compassion for you (I myself also have been in a large, really healthy and strong 12 Step group for many years); it's wonderful you've chosen to aim to go the pathway of getting healthy and staying healthy. What I suggest you consider doing is having a review of your case done. If you're low income, indigent, I note you wrote Brown County; I suggest you might want to do an Intake with SMRLS (So. MN Reg'l Legal Servs.) and find if they may help you (I do not know the answer). I do this sort of CPS 'termination of parental rights' case review in my work. What happens is that I review the legal and related paperwork of the case with my client. If my client has financial stress, I will provide reduced lawyer work fee. If you are going to have lawyer help with this, DO 'run do NOT walk' because this sort of legal matter contains many time pressures and time deadlines, and people can forever lose rights by undue delay or 'doing nothing'. |
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Note: All writings on this website are not legal advice. Know that laws always include details, & exceptions, & laws can & do change over time. This website includes some Advertising Material. Contact attorney Dwyer right now - use Contact Form - & briefly state what your legal need is.
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