Jersey City, Hudson County Superior Court

This was a case that made news around the world.  Its every parent’s worse nightmare:  you hire a nanny to watch your baby only to find out that the nanny is abusing the baby!  The client was caught via a webcam and soon after the incident, she was unable to be located for several months.  As a result, she was declared a fugitive.  The video of the client assaulting the baby was all over the news.  Eventually the client was caught.  This is an impossible case to defend right?  Not so said our Hudson County Child Abuse Lawyers.

We took the emotion out of this case and broke it down to what it was, not what it seemed like.  A careful examination of the facts and the law clearly showed that the client did not have the intent to harm the baby and that no harm was actually done.  We were fully prepared to take the case to trial but right before jury selection the client agreed to accept a plea deal to a 3 flat.  After the client was sentenced, she will be eligible to get out of prison in just a few months.  While our Hudson County Child Abuse lawyers were ready to take the case to trial, we understood the client’s position.  A few months in prison is much better than spending several years in prison if she was convicted.

How can our Hudson County Child Abuse Lawyers help you?

The Atlantic County DYFS Attorneys of the Law Offices of Jef Henninger, Esq. have helped another client win a fact finding hearing.  In an Atlantic County DYFS case, the trial is called a fact finding hearing.  At this hearing, an Atlantic County Superior Court Judge will decide if the Title 9 abuse or neglect charges should be substantiated.

In this case, our DYFS attorneys were presented with a number of difficult facts.  Many DYFS cases only involve one set of allegations but this case involved three.  First, DYFS alleged that our client had committed acts of domestic violence against the mother of the children.  Then he is alleged to have choked his daughter and smacked his son.  This is classic child abuse but the technical term is excessive corporal punishment.  Finally, DYFS also alleged that our client a substance abuse problem.

To many attorneys, this may seem like an impossible case to win since there are three trials in one.  However, our Atlantic County DYFS Attorneys know how to fight.  We took this case to trial and after the fact finding hearing was over, the judge had indicated that we won the case.  Despite DYFS trying three different ways to nail our client, we still won the entire case!

The facts of this case represent a very common fact pattern that our Mercer County DYFS Lawyers often see.  Mom gives birth to a child and at the hospital, it is discovered that mom used drugs while she was pregnant.  This can be determined through a number of ways.  Sometimes, the mom will admit during prenatal care that she has used drugs during the pregnancy.  In other cases, either the mom or the baby will test positive for drugs.  Sometimes it is the baby’s Meconium which may be tested by the hospital to check for drug use.  Finally, in other cases, the baby may exhibit withdrawal symptoms.

In this case, our Mercer County DYFS Lawyers took the case to trial which is called a fact finding hearing.  There, we fought hard for our client and argued that, despite the allegations, DYFS did not have the evidence needed to find that our client had abused or neglected or child.  At the conclusion of the trial, the judge found in our favor and the child abuse charges were dismissed.

Our Trenton office is easy to get to from anywhere in Mercer County so call us at 732-773-2768 to discuss your case.

Our New Brunswick DCPP Lawyers have helped a client win a permanency hearing in Middlesex County. In a DCPP case, a permanency hearing is the final hearing in the FN litigation. DYFS will ask the Court to change the plan from reunification to something else such as termination of parental rights. In this case, DYFS was pushing to change the plan but our lawyers fought back! Our New Brunswick DCPP Lawyers helped our client get an extension so that he can continue to demonstrate compliance. If he does that, he will be reunified with his children and the case will be closed. We hope to report that our DYFS lawyers were able to do that for him in the next few months.

New Brunswick DCPP Lawyers

This was a very interesting, yet complex case. The case involves a lot of different players as our client is both a parent to a young child and also a grand parent. Thus, there are two sets of parents in this case. The allegations involved a complex history of incest, sex abuse, kidnapping, drug use, etc. The complaint was rather lengthy and it took some time to unravel the entire story. Our lawyers excel at dealing with complex cases and that’s what we did here. We broke the case down to its individual parts and in the end, a complex case turned out to be a one issue case. We were fully prepared to tear apart the case at the fact finding trial but beforehand, we spoke wot the DYFS DAG. As a result, the fact finding hearing was avoided and the Title 9 child abuse and neglect allegations were thrown out. This was a huge victory and it will help our client fully regain her parental rights.

Toms River DCPP Attorneys

This client originally hired another lawyer from a firm with a website that is filled with DYFS and other key words.  Of course, anyone can hire a company to write such a website.  That doesn’t mean that these lawyers have success with DCPP cases.  Luckily for the client, he fired this firm shortly after hiring them and hired us.  Our Hackensack DCPP lawyers fought the case hard.  Even though the judge had already found that the client had a long standing drug addiction, our lawyers were able to get the client his child back.  Since he split up with his wife, the judge had to choose between him and the mother and she chose him, our client.

If you want help in getting your child back, call our team of tough, smart Hackensack DCPP lawyers today to discuss your case.

OAL Appeal

In this case, our client was accused of making threats to harm his children.  Although these threats were due to mental illness, DYFS still brought him to court.  His prior attorney was able to get the case dismissed however, DYFS still substantiated him for child abuse and neglect.  As a result, the client needed to file an OAL appeal.  Since his prior lawyer didn’t have much DYFS experience, he hired us to make sure the case was dismissed.  Recently, we received notice that the finding was reversed and thus, the client has been removed from the database.  This was important because although the DYFS case was dismissed, the client still had problems with parenting time due to the finding of abuse and neglect against him.  This reversal will help our DYFS lawyers help the client secure a proper parenting time schedule in his divorce case.

Call our DYFS OAL Appeal Lawyers anytime to discuss your case.

One recent example involves a client who thought that she didn’t have to speak with DYFS because they only have 60 days to complete their investigation.  Since it has been more than 4 months, the client wanted me to confirm that she could just tell them to go away.  So, besides the client calling me with not even a thought of ever hiring me, she wanted me to confirm that she didn’t have to speak with DYFS and was then upset when I told her that she was wrong.  DYFS doesn’t always follow their own rules and when they don’t, it doesn’t mean that you benefit.

The surest way to make sure DYFS goes away is to call a lawyer that knows what he/she is doing.  As I have said before, plenty of people have made DYFS go away without a lawyer but plenty of people have also screwed up their case by handling it on their own and as a result, they wound up in court.  Click on the “DYFS Trap” link above to learn more about why this happens.

Call our DYFS Investigation Lawyers today to discuss your case and how we can help make sure you don’t go to court.

Compounding this problem is that there are plenty of people that handle DYFS cases without an attorney and they come out fine.  So, if they talk to another attorney or they talk to a friend, they will say “see, I don’t need an attorney because of ….”.  This is only bolstered when the parent receives an unfounded letter.  However, what they don’t understand is that when DYFS says that they “will be providing services to your family” is a huge sign of danger.  As I indicated in the DYFS Trap, many people wind up in DYFS court because of their interaction with DYFS after the initial allegation and not because of the initial allegation itself.  Thus, just because you don’t think that DYFS will substantiate you for the initial allegation or if DYFS has already given you an unfounded letter does not mean that you can breathe easily.  Instead of assuming you are out of the woods, you should assume that you are in for big problems.  Its much cheaper to stay out of court than to roll the dice and wind up in court.

If you received an unfounded letter but DYFS still wants you to do services, call our team of tough, smart DYFS Defense Lawyers to discuss your case.