Children's Protective Services

Agencies such as the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) are designed to come to the “aid” of children upon the utterance of an allegation of abuse which may be based upon the very weakest of evidence. The DCS mission is to help and protect children but often times they simply destroy families. This result occurs when investigators and advocates decide what is the truth in a particular family setting without exploring all possible scenarios.

There is no dispute that children can be victims of physical and sexual abuse. The real question though is whether they are victims in a specific case. Investigators need to use nonleading questions in interviewing children, thoroughly explore the child’s character for truthfulness and his/her level of intellectual functioning. Likewise, all persons with access to the child need to be interviewed to determine what, if any, role they might play in making the allegations.

Someone accused of child physical or sexual abuse needs a lawyer with experience in dealing with DCS and understands the proper methodology in conducting an investigation. All too often, a sloppy investigation can lead to false accusations and what is even worse, false convictions. From the moment a DCS official becomes involved in allegations of abuse, and you feel that you are the target of these allegations, you need an attorney.