Unexplained Injuries in DYFS cases

Allegations of physical child abuse can take many forms but they often falls into two categories: cases where someone witnessed a parent or caregiver abuse a child or cases where there are injuries to a child that could only have been caused by abuse. That second set of cases can be described as unexplained injuries. While there are other things that could have caused these injuries, the parents usually report that nothing happened. Without any other explanation, the only other cause left is abuse. That’s why we call them unexplained injuries. Shaken baby syndrome is a subset of these cases but unexplained injuries can involve older children.

If DYFS suspect you of injuring your child, you should call a lawyer immediately/. Anything you do or say will be noted and that can be twisted and turned around against you. Quite often, they do not look for other explanations. For example, we had a client that was accused of harming her child. Our client said the child fell of a bike but DYFS said it was abuse. We found that there was dirt inside the handle bars of the child’s bike that was consistent with our client’s story. Our DYFS defense lawyers then hired an expert to support this theory. The report was submitted to DYFS and the case was dismissed the day before the trial was to begin.

The lesson learned here is that you cannot assume that DYFS will perform a full and fair investigation into this case. If you had to bring your child to the doctor’s office or hospital and DYFS was called regarding these injuries, you are likely a suspect even if they don’t come out and say that. If that happens, your next call should be to a DYFS defense attorney. Call us at 1-855-9-JEFLAW to discuss your case.