Doing More for Children with Less: Multidisciplinary Representation of Poor Children in Family Court and Probate Court

Abstract

Family court and probate court are Barmecide feasts for too many children, especially poor children with special needs. "Multidisciplinary representation" of children enables the courts to address needs and risks that cannot be resolved by fine-tuning a custody schedule, frequently at little or no additional cost to the taxpayers. Since most children cannot identify the salient issues in their cases, and do not have standing in family court or probate court much less lawyers to represent them, it becomes the court's responsibility in every case to identify the issues most relevant to children's interests and decide whether multidisciplinary representation is indispensable to justice.

Keywords: at-risk children; family court; probate court; custody; access to justice; multidisciplinary representation; counsel