Juvenile Law Center

From the day Juvenile Law Center opened its doors in 1975, it has focused on dependent and delinquent youth’s constitutional right to counsel. In many states, including Pennsylvania, the right to counsel for dependent children is required by statute. Access to quality counsel, however, advances one of our core goals: to ensure that youth are treated fairly by the child welfare and justice systems.

Every day, vulnerable children suffer life-altering consequences because they lack an attorney to rigorously advocate on their behalf, safeguard fair treatment, and hold these public systems accountable. Youth in the justice system face incarceration, permanent court records, the loss of educational opportunities, and the deprivation of a normal developmental pathway. Children in abuse and neglect cases face similarly severe outcomes, including separation from siblings, multiple foster homes or other placements, and repeated school disruptions that impede their success. In a recent study, researchers found that children represented by attorneys are 1.5 times more likely to find a permanent home than those who are not.¹ Unfortunately, many states still fail to provide lawyers for dependent and delinquent children, and the constitutional right to counsel remains unfulfilled.

Juvenile Law Center strives to ensure a robust right to counsel for all youth in dependency and delinquency cases. Through litigation, policy reform, advocacy, and education, we work to enforce and promote this right, and to enhance the skills, resources, and capacity of children’s attorneys. Notable examples of our work include responding to the Luzerne County “kids-for cash” scandal, for which we collaborated with legislators and policymakers to ensure that, regardless of their parents’ income, all children have access to counsel and do not waive this right. We’ve also co-authored assessments of counsel for children in both delinquency and dependency proceedings in Pennsylvania, and participated in other organizations’ evaluations of counsel elsewhere. We have co-authored amicus briefs in several states in support of children’s access to counsel. Furthermore, we play an active role in the American Bar Association Litigation Section’s Children’s Rights Litigation Committee, which is promoting a model law on representing dependent children. 

Our expertise enables us to train counsel in PA and across the country on how to best serve dependent children, guidance we’ve likewise offered at large-scale gatherings for organizations such as the National Association of Counsel for Children and the ABA Center on Children and the Law.

¹Zinn, A. E. & Slowriver, J. Expediting Permanency: Legal Representation for Foster Children in Palm Beach County. Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, 2008. Web.

Last updated December 2011