If you are a parent, family member, or caregiver involved in a court case with the Children’s Aid Society, it is important for you to retain a lawyer to represent you without delay, and as quickly as possible.
We have experience representing parents, family, kin, children, and even out-of-province and international parties to CAS cases. If you need a CAS lawyer for a case in London, Ontario, or involving the Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex, call our office at 519-488-5263 or toll-free 1-866-428-1063.
The Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex is one of 47 non-profit organizations operating under the legal mandate of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act in Ontario. When concerns about a child’s welfare and safety are brought to the attention of the CAS and its “child protection workers”, they will take steps to investigate and intervene if they deem it to be necessary.
The CYFSA makes the protection of a child’s best interests its primary focus, but it also states that protecting children should be done in a way that promotes family unity. Unfortunately, that’s not always how CAS workers operate – especially if there are differences of opinion or differing stories between the parents or a history of involvement with the parents (even if the parents themselves were the ones who were in need of protection as children). Sometimes, CAS workers will even intervene in cases where children have medical or behavioural issues that the parents are taking every possible step to take care of, and parents are left wondering what else they can possibly do to satisfy the child protection worker and regain control of their lives and their own family. It is vital that you hire a lawyer to represent you in your CAS case right away because the law places strict timelines and deadlines on cases involving the Children’s Aid Society, and it is possible that if parents wait too long, their children can end up being removed from their care permanently.
In the most extreme cases, the CAS may apprehend children who they believe are in need of protection from their home, either temporarily or permanently. The new law in Ontario refers to this as bringing the child to “a place of safety”, but the end result is the same. Families are separated, and children can end up in the care of distant relatives or strangers. Sometimes, parents who care deeply for their children but who may have had difficulty in providing adequate support for them may find themselves in the position of having to go to court in order to prove that they can provide a suitable home for their child. In other cases, the parents are already doing everything possible to take care of their kids, but the Society’s workers are still unsatisfied. In these cases, it is vital to have a lawyer representing you in order to ensure that your child’s wellbeing and your family’s future are advocated for effectively both with the Society and in court.
In other cases, the CAS may not be aware that there are potential problems with a child’s living arrangements, or they may not be aware that a suitable alternative home exists. In those cases, a family member or family friend may wish to consult a lawyer to determine the best way forward in advocating for the child’s best interests.
Whether you’re dealing with a CAS court case already, or you’re a concerned family member, call me today at 519-488-5263 or toll-free at 1-866-428-1063 to discuss your matter. I accept legal aid certificates and private billing for child protection court cases.
Steps to a CAS Court Case in London, Ontario
1. Bringing the child to a place of safety (formerly called “apprehending the child”)
In some cases, the Children’s Aid Society will take a child away from his or her parents before the court case is even started. In emergency situations, Society workers can even act without a warrant and may enlist the police to help them remove or apprehend the child. This should only happen in the most urgent situations, but of course, there are situations with the Society may overstep and act too quickly.
2. Starting the Court Case (“Protection Application”)
When a child has been apprehended or “brought to a place of safety”, there is a time limit of five days before the Children’s Aid Society must bring their protection application to court, but the law also says this must be done as soon as practicable. This means that the Society should bring the application to court more quickly than the five days if it’s reasonably possible to do so. You may be served with court papers days in advance, the day before court, or even at the courthouse itself. No matter how the Society serves their court papers on you, you should contact a family lawyer who takes CAS cases right away for help. There are very important deadlines for you to file your responding papers in court so that the judge will hear you. If you don’t act quickly and get involved in the court case right away, you are just leaving the CAS in the driver’s seat.
3. What to do once you have your court papers
If you don’t have money for a lawyer, take your papers to the Duty Counsel office at the London, Ontario courthouse (located on the second floor), and ask them to help you apply for Legal Aid. Then call a London, Ontario lawyer who takes CAS cases. I accept legal aid for Children’s Aid Society court cases in London, Ontario and for all cases involving the Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex.
If you are looking to hire a lawyer privately, make an appointment with a local London CAS lawyer, and bring all your court papers to your first meeting.
If you’d like to book a consultation or meeting with me to discuss your London CAS case or you have a legal aid certificate for a a London Children’s Aid Society case, call 519-488-5263 or toll-free 1-866-428-1063.
The most important thing is not to put hiring a lawyer for a CAS case in London off. Even if you haven’t been served with papers yet, but you know a court case is underway or coming soon, call a London family lawyer right away.
4. First court date
Go to the first court date whether you have a lawyer or not. If you can’t afford a lawyer, or haven’t been able to hire one yet, speak to the duty counsel lawyer located on the second floor of the London Courthouse at 80 Dundas Street. The court staff do not call out the names of kids involved in the case, or their parents for privacy reasons. They will call out the court file number and the name of the CAS worker. Duty Counsel can help you figure out which courtroom your case will be in once you arrive. If you have a lawyer with you, they will know which courtroom your case is in. The wait can be lengthy sometimes. Don’t be tempted to go and get a coffee or have a cigarette until the court takes its break, because cases are not called in the order they appear on the list, and you don’t want to accidentally miss your court appearance.
At the first court date, the only materials that that Court will have available to it are the Society’s materials. They will often contain all kinds of allegations that may sound terrible, but they are not usually discussed in much detail at the first appearance date. Keep composed, and remember that the judge is not going to make any permanent or long-term decisions on this date because he or she will know that you have not had much (if any) time to hire a lawyer or get ready to respond to the court case yet. If a temporary order is made and you don’t agree with it, the lawyer who you hire later can help you ask the Court to change it.
At the end of the first court date you will be told when you need to come back to court. A date for the lawyers to make arguments about where your kids should be staying during the court case may also be set if your kids have already been taken away from you and brought to a “place of safety”/apprehended.
5. Temporary Care & Custody Motion
If the Children’s Aid Society has removed your children from your care, either they or you can bring a motion about temporary care and custody to decide where your kids will live until a final decision is made by the court. The judge who is hearing the motion will have read the Society worker’s affidavit (sworn statement) and materials beforehand. The judge will also read your materials and sworn statement which your lawyer will prepare and file for you in advance. Your lawyer can also argue for you to have specific access rights between court dates if your kids are not going to be living with you in the meantime.
Most judges will be inclined to give the Society worker the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are doing what they think is best for your kids. Unfortunately live/spoken evidence is not usually allowed at motions. The judge will only read the sworn statements and hear legal arguments made by the lawyers. That means that you don’t get the opportunity to make any sincere or impassioned statements to the judge. At this point, it is very important to have a lawyer who knows whether the best thing to do is fight the case strongly in the meantime, or to help find ways to work with the Society worker in the meantime through agreements, cooperation, and support programs. Every single family, every single parent, every single child, and every single case is different. You need to hire a lawyer who fights when it’s time to fight, and who is also able and willing to help parents access the supports they need and who will help you liaise with the Society to compromise when it’s the better move to get your kids returned to you sooner.
6. Conferences and Meetings
The law requires the Children’s Aid Society and parents involved in the case to come to court to have a settlement conference where the parties will all meet in privately with a judge in the courtroom to discuss the possibility of settling the case. This has to happen before the case goes to trial. In the meantime, it can also be productive to have family planning meetings or settlement discussions with the lawyers and mediators to try to settle the case. These meetings may happen at Society’s offices. In London, the Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex has meeting rooms available for settlement discussions and mediations at their headquarters located at 1680 Oxford Street East.
If you are going to attempt these types of settlement discussions, it’s important to have a lawyer with you who can provide advice and keep a good record of everything that’s discussed. Even if the case cannot be settled, the lawyer may be able to find out more information that is useful for your case at these meetings by speaking to the Society workers and their supervisors about what their main concerns are, and what they would like to see happen with the case. That information is vital to being able to figure out what the best course of action in your case is.
7. Trial
Most cases end up settling. Some have to be fought at trial. A good family lawyer can help you go through the process of figuring out what your best option is, and when it comes down to it, will advocate for you at trial.
8. Status Review
If the Court makes a final order that puts your child in the temporary care of the Children’s Aid Society, or that imposes Society supervision on your family, the Society must come to Court and ask a judge to review the situation before the order expires. You or the Society can also bring a status review application to the Court before that time if things have changed and there is a need to do so. During the status review, most of the above steps are repeated. The point is for the court to decide whether it’s time to return your kids to you, or whether the Society still needs to be involved, and if so, in what way. If you have been served with a status review application to be heard at the London courthouse, call 519-488-5263 for help with your London CAS court case.
Important Notes
CAS workers write everything down. Remember, CAS workers are not your friends – they are professionals with their own agenda and objectives in mind. Your kids are their concern, not you. But even though the workers are not your friends, you also don’t want to make them your enemy. It’s important to be civil, and polite. If you come across as angry, uncooperative, combative, or unstable, this will come back to hurt you later. As hard as it is to keep a level head when you are looking at the prospect of losing your children, it’s vital that you do so. A good lawyer can help you navigate the process.