New Jersey Child Custody Cases involving DYFS

A few years ago, it seemed like most DYFS court cases were in DYFS court where they were the Plaintiff.  However, our New Jersey child custody lawyers have noticed a disturbing trend has been increasing.  when parents are separated and DYFS receives a report of abuse or neglect, they are not filing a court case against one of the parents.  Instead, they are advising the other parent to file an Order to Show Cause to seek custody of the child.  In other words, DYFS backs the other parent and provides them with advice.  Even worse is that they will write reports and provide them to the court.  However, they are not a party to the case and may not even show up to court.  This leads to a number of problems.

One major problem is that because this isn’t a “DYFS Case” the parent who is fighting to protect their rights does not hire an attorney that knows how to handle DYFS cases.  This can lead to huge problems when DYFS and other parents pushes them around the court room.  Our lawyers have seen it way too many times when people fire their previous lawyer and then hire us to take control of the case.

Another problem is that although this custody case will function a lot like a DYFS case, there are important procedural safe guards that you will not have.  For example, you will have to fight to get access to the DYFS file whereas in a regular DYFS case, you will automatically get access to the entire file. Furthermore, with the case worker not present in court, it may be difficult to challenge the report that is forwarded to the court.  Also, attorney are usually given court reports before court but with these cases, reports may only be given to you after you arrive at court given the attorney no time to prepare.

Our team of tough, smart New Jersey custody lawyers know how to handle these difficult cases.  We know how to both defend a custody case and a DYFS case.  Thus, when the two are put together in these hybrid cases, we know how to fight for you.  We will hold the entire system accountable so that DYFS and the other parent do not push you around.  Call us now to discuss your case.