| Releases
& Statements
Contact: Frank Sobrino
O: (212) 669-4193
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September
18, 2006
Gotbaum:
High Attorney Turnover Plagues ACS Family Court Unit
Overworked child welfare attorneys
often go into Family Court inadequately prepared, potentially
exposing battered children to further abuse, according to a report
by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released today.
In examining the Family
Court operations of the Administration for Children’s Services,
Gotbaum found attorneys overwhelmed by their caseloads but nonetheless
performing administrative chores, such as faxing and photocopying,
because of a lack of support staff.
Current and former ACS attorneys interviewed
for the report described the situation as a “ticking time
bomb” that threatened battered children who might be returned
to abusive homes, or removed from a stable, loving family, because
their cases were mishandled by the attorneys.
“In the wake of recent tragedies,
much of the focus has been on the performance of ACS caseworkers
and their supervisors,” Gotbaum said. “What this study
clearly shows is that the fragile lives of some of our most vulnerable
children also depend on how ACS attorneys perform in Family Court.
The stakes are high and the potential for tragedy is real.”
Gotbaum determined the root of the
problem with ACS’s Family Court operations to be the extraordinarily
high rate of attrition among agency attorneys—22.6 percent
a year.
“It’s a
dangerous cycle,” explained Gotbaum, who has made child
welfare a focus of her tenure as public advocate. “Strained,
underpaid attorneys burn out and leave ACS. Their cases are assigned
to lawyers whose caseloads are already full. The remaining attorneys
often do not get to review a case until moments before entering
a courtroom and presenting to the judge.”
Compounding the problem, she said,
is the fact that ACS takes a long time to hire and train replacements.
By the time the replacements are prepared to handle a caseload,
many of the more seasoned attorneys have left. And so the cycle
goes on.
One former ACS attorney described
the cycle this way: “Most new attorneys at ACS take about
six months to figure out their work, by 12 months they are burned
out and by 18 months they leave ACS.” More than half of
the attorneys surveyed for the report left ACS after working 18
months or less; 80 percent left in less than four years. Their
replacements were, in most cases, recent law school graduates,
the survey found.
Approached by current ACS attorneys,
Gotbaum decided to look into the situation at the ACS Family Court
unit.
Gotbaum’s office identified
96 ACS Family Court attorneys who left the agency between January
1, 2004, and March 31, 2006, and was able to interview 25 of them.
Among the report’s findings are:
· During the
27-month period reviewed, 96 ACS attorneys left the agency, an
attrition rate of 22.6 percent, more than four times the agency’s
stated goal of 5 percent and more than two to three times greater
than the attrition rates of city district attorney’s offices
and lawyers with the federal government.
· At the time of their resignations,
the vast majority of the attorneys surveyed—88 percent—had
caseloads of more than 50, the maximum recommended by the American
Bar Association. One-third of the attorneys had caseloads of at
least 100, with one responsible for 150 cases.
· Sixty percent
of those surveyed described their caseloads as "unmanageable.”
Attorneys with high
caseloads and little time to prepare for courtroom appearances
are compelled to request adjournments, those interviewed said.
These delays contribute to the exceptionally lengthy stays in
foster care in New York City. At 45.8 months, the city’s
average length of stay in foster care is more than a year longer
than the national average of 31 months. Requesting adjournments,
a fairly common practice, delays the provision of services to
children and families in the child welfare system.
A large majority of the attorneys
interviewed—70 percent—said they joined ACS because
they wanted to work in child welfare and help children and families.
The most frequently cited reason for leaving was the “negative
agency culture.” One former ACS attorney interviewed said,
“The culture of ACS is not about protecting children, but
about protecting themselves from bad press.”
Other reasons cited
for leaving ACS were the New York City residency requirement and
relatively low pay—$44,302 for a new ACS Family Court attorney.
These attorneys pointed out that the pay and limited growth potential
were not enough to cover their law school debt and the high costs
associated with living in New York City.
ACS Commissioner John Mattingly recently
lifted the residency requirement. Gotbaum applauded the initiative,
but said more needed to be done to cut into the high attorney
attrition rate. Among other recommendations, Gotbaum said ACS
needed to:
· Hire more attorneys, so as
to reduce individual caseloads.
· Recruit and train new attorneys
on an ongoing basis, so that vacancies can be filled swiftly.
· Hire skilled paralegals and
support staff to help ease attorneys’ workloads.
· Create a loan
repayment program to help attorneys pay off their law school debt.
“There are some clear steps
that can be taken to deal with the problem and, fortunately, Commissioner
Mattingly has begun the process by lifting the residency requirement,”
Gotbaum added. “There’s much more to be done, however,
to cut attrition rates, reduce caseloads and improve attorneys’
performance in Family Court.”
Since becoming public advocate, Gotbaum
has repeatedly called on the City to improve child welfare services.
In 2004, her review of child fatalities led to the discovery that
a disproportionate number of children in the homeless shelter
system were dying. She introduced legislation requiring the Department
of Homeless Services to post signs reminding shelter staff of
their reporting responsibilities. The bill, signed into law last
year, also required the agency to post signs in its family shelters
noting the proper sleeping position for infants.
* * *
A
Dangerous Cycle: Attorney Turnover at ACS Leaves Children Unprotected
(PDF) September 2006
|
