If you have to take your young child to an emergency room because of a possible broken bone be prepared for the REAL POSSIBILITY that you could have your child taken from you and put in foster care. The “child dependency laws” in California are extremely harsh when it comes to a situation where doctors at the emergency room believe that your child was injured “intentionally”. It doesn’t matter that as parents you did not intentionally injure your child. It doesn’t matter that you state over and over that you do not know how the child injured themselves. What is even more amazing, is that in a recent case the parents were not caring for their child when their baby was taken to the emergency room. The baby was being watched by his grandfather.
Social workers took the baby from the parents after the emergency room doctor claimed that the injury that the baby suffered was in his opinion “non-accidental”.
The parents of the child were not at home. The parents of the child could not have injured the child. The child dependency court held a trial and concluded that because the parents “could not be 100% ruled out” as a possible “suspect” that meant that the child became a “ward of the county” and the parents lost legal custody of their child.
If your child is injured and a doctor at the emergency room believes that it is “likely” that the injury was not accidental then the “burden” shifts to you as parents to prove in court that there is a “non-intentional” way that your child was injured. This is true even if you left the child with the grandparents or another babysitter.
This nightmare is repeated over and over again every night in California. Parents determine that their young child is injured. They seek immediate medical care. Then within minutes the parents “become suspects” as social workers repeatedly question the parents in an attempt to obtain some sort of “admission or confession” that they intentionally injured their child. This often leads to social workers putting a “hold” on the baby at the hospital and restricting the parents access to their own child.
At Wallin and Klarich we have been helping parents who have had their children taken from them by social workers fight to win them back. Nothing is more important to parents than their children. Yet social workers often treat loving parents like criminals and the trauma that is caused to the family is overwhelming. If you would like to discuss your case with our family law attorneys feel free to call us toll free at (888) 749-7428 and we will be there when you call.
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