FYI FYI FYI FYI F O R Y O U R I N F O R M A T I O N Issue 07-30 Date: 09/19/07
LOS ANGELES DEPENDENCY LAWYERS (LADL)
This is to advise staff that the Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers (LADL) legal organization, which represents parents in Dependency Court proceedings, has hired investigators and a classification of employees it calls “social workers”. These “social workers” are interviewing parents, children and, in some cases, CSWs, and are preparing reports and submitting them to the court. In at least one case, the LADL employee also took pictures during a monitored visit at the DCFS office and attached those photos to their report.
The LADL organization is comprised of four individual law firms: (1) Law Offices of Katherine Anderson; (2) Law offices of Barry Herzog; (3) Law Offices of Alex Iglesias; and (4) Law Offices of Timothy Martella.
Any contact with investigators or "social workers" who identify themselves as representatives of LADL, or any of its four law firms, shall be limited to the following: 1. Receipt of information regarding a parent’s attempts to comply with court orders. 2. Receipt of any new information about the parent(s), the child or the child’s caregivers.
If the conversation goes beyond the above-cited subjects, the CSW shall not continue the discussion without consulting with County Counsel.
In addition, at no time is the CSW to permit an investigator, "social worker" or unauthorized person to attend any visits or CSW interviews without first consulting with County Counsel. However, this should not prevent the visit between the parent and the child from occurring.
See Procedural Guide 0300-506.05, Conversations with Attorneys and Other Non-DCFS Court Staff.
If you have any questions regarding this release please e-mail your question to:
Clerical Handbook: http://lacdcfs.org/Policy/Hndbook%20Clerical/Default.htm Child Welfare Services Handbook: http://lacdcfs.org/Policy/Hndbook%20CWS/default.htm FYI’s: http://lacdcfs.org/Policy/FYI/TOCFYI.htm