Aggressive. Determined. Hardworking.

Dependency Defense And Juvenile Lawyers Serving Tucson

Can you answer YES to any of these initial questions?

  • Have you had a visit from CPS or DCS to your home?
  • Has CPS or DCS called you and left a message?
  • Has CPS or DCS interviewed your child?
  • Has DCS visited with your child at school?
  • Are you on a CPS or DCS Case Plan?
  • Has CPS or DCS removed your children from your custody and have you been served with court orders and/or have an upcoming hearing?
  • Has the attorney general, CPS or DCS initiated a dependency proceeding against you, giving you supervised visitation, thus taken custody of your child(ren)?
  • Are your children living with foster parents or another family member?
  • Has the attorney general, CPS or DCS filed a Petition in Juvenile Court to sever your rights from your children?

If any of these have occurred, you need to hire private proper representation, and a qualified juvenile defense attorney such as those at our firm. If you want to defend yourself against Child Protective Services (CPS) or the Department of Child Services (DCS) or the attorney general to regain custody of your children, contact one of our qualified and experienced Tucson family law, child custody and juvenile attorneys in Tucson, Arizona, who know the law and who are experienced enough to fight the criminal and juvenile claims brought against you by DCS. We will defend and represent you and advocate to either close the investigation or go to court against the attorney general to ask the court to return your children to your custody. The sooner you make the call to hire proper counsel, the better, as the longer you wait, the longer it takes to have your children returned.

Initial Contact And Being Placed On A CPS/DCS Case Plan: Contact Our Qualified Juvenile Attorneys

If you receive an initial call from CPS or DCS; if CPS or DCS interviews you regarding allegation of abuse or neglect against your children; if your children are interviewed at their school or at home; or if CPS or DCS advises you that they want to “Interview your Child” or have a “Home Visit,” contact the qualified Tucson juvenile litigation attorneys at Ayala Law Office, P.C., for our legal assistance. Our firm’s attorneys have many successful years of defending our client’s rights in child custody litigation matters in juvenile court, and in defending our client’s rights and actions brought by the state to either monitor or remove your children from your custody.

At Ayala Law, we find that it is better to retain a qualified CPS/DCS defense attorney before you are facing charges regarding the custody of your children or criminal charges as alleged by the state. In fact, if you do not contact an attorney to represent you, you may face having your children removed from your custody immediately, and permanently, especially if CPS or DCS believes and convinces the court that you cannot parent the children, that you protected a person who harmed or neglected your children, or that you neglected or abused your children to the level for which removal from your custody would be warranted.

And, if things continue to diminish as to your credibility or your case with your children, while involved in juvenile court proceedings, the state and DCS can move to terminate your rights to your children, and if that is ordered by the court, you will no longer legally be able to be with or contact your children and they will be adopted by another family.

CPS Or The Attorney General Takes Custody Of Your Children

If CPS/DCS believes that abuse or neglect has occurred to your children, the children will legally either be removed from their parent’s custody and, in some cases, both of their parents’ custody, or the person’s custody which they were left, and, if possible, the children will be placed temporarily with a family member while CPS/DCS investigates the matter further. If a family member is not available, the children will be placed in an authorized center and/or with a foster parent or family. In the meantime, CPS/DCS will have meetings and they will develop a case plan to determine if reunification is possible without court intervention. If this takes place, it is better that you call and retain counsel earlier than when the case plan meeting takes place because there is a lot of work involved in representing a parent who is in juvenile court or in contact with DCS. Our qualified Tucson juvenile attorneys at Ayala Law Office, P.C., will be there to assist you even if DCS has taken the children from your custody. We may be able to have your children placed with a family member, or initiate visitation, or counseling, or have the children placed back with you in placement, which DCS investigates the case. If you are ordered supervised visitation, that means that another person will need to be around you as a parent, at all times when that parent is near their children and until the matter is resolved.

The firm’s attorneys will work with CPS/DCS to provide evidence and support to prove that the level of alleged abuse or neglect does not rise to the level of continuing to remove the children from their parent’s custody or in removing them at all or under “supervised” conditions and we will work to have the Judge issue a finding of non-dependent so that your children are returned to your custody. However, if in CPS/DCS’s opinion, their case plan is not being adhered to by the parent(s), CPS/DCS can remove the children from the parent’s physical custody and initiate dependency proceedings in the juvenile court through the state or attorney general, and they will take legal custody of your children from their parent(s). If this occurs, call our firm immediately to retain counsel. If your children are removed, CPS/DCS will then monitor the parent(s) through the court and there will be hearings held to determine if the children will be reunified and returned to their parent(s)’ custody, over time.

If you have had contact with CPS/DCS or the attorney general regarding your children or the custody of your children, contact the experienced CPS/DCS defense and child custody lawyers in Tucson at Ayala Law for their expertise and help.

Dependency Proceedings In Juvenile Court And Severence Proceedings

If juvenile court proceedings for dependency have been initiated against you by the attorney general, you will be served with a petition alleging abuse and/or neglect of your children and why and you will be appointed a court appointed attorney to defend you in court against the allegations made in the petition by the attorney general’s office and its client, CPS/DCS. The juvenile court must review the cases of all children placed in foster or relative care at least once every six months. At the first review hearing, information is given as to the parent’s progress with their reunification plan and case plan and on how the child is doing in foster care or with the placement family.

These court appointed attorneys are there to assist you only in protecting your civil rights. They are not there for your children. Your children will be appointed their own counsel, an ad litem attorney, who will act as their attorney representative and the ad litem will not always side with one or both of the parent(s) as to the return of the children to the parent’s custody.

If your court appointed lawyer is not meeting your needs, it is best that you retain qualified counsel on your own, who will be there to act in your best interest, such as the qualified and experienced dependency defense attorneys in Tucson at Ayala Law. Our attorneys will work to represent you diligently in juvenile court, to obtain witnesses and positive evidence and to properly present those witnesses and that evidence to the court, to ensure that your goals are met and to assist you in regaining custody of your children, which if the state and the court have been initiated proceedings against you, will NOT be an easy task to accomplish in regaining custody of your children.

Further, litigating your case against the state and the attorney general to regain custody of your children will be an expensive process, especially if the state has evidence against you to prove that previous abuse or neglect occurred, even if it did not occur. The privately retained Tucson juvenile attorneys at Ayala Law will work diligently with you so that reunification with your children is accomplished as soon as possible. YOU will need to have patience and you will also need to stay CLEAN of drugs and alcohol, stay credible with the court as instructed by our attorneys and follow and comply with the case plan in order to assist our attorneys in representing you in that reunification process.

In many cases, when the parent(s) in proceedings do not follow the case plan or the requirements of the court, the attorney general will make placement (with the foster family or other family member) permanent and in some cases, as stated above, they will move to sever or terminate your rights with your children and they will initiate severance proceedings against you (and possibly the other parent’s rights as well) in court. If severance is ordered by the court, that severance is permanent and irreversible.

Why The Juvenile Court Appoints An Attorney To The Parents Of Removed Children

If the parent cannot afford to retain private counsel, the juvenile court is required to appoint the parent(s) of children removed with an attorney to represent you in a dependency matter or a severance matter as these matters before the court are quasi-criminal in nature, meaning that the state is alleging that you have abused or neglected your children, a criminal offense and the consequences are serious, meaning that you could lose permanent custody of your children, and in some cases, criminal charges can be filed against the parent that allegedly abused, neglected and/or injured their children, and your rights to your children can be terminated. If the court appoints a free attorney to you in these proceedings, you do not need to continue to use that attorney, you can retain private counsel, such as the attorneys at our law firm. We can file to substitute in against the appointed attorney in your matter.

Our firm can also be retained as counsel for a family member wishing to intervene into the juvenile dependency or severance court proceedings as a foster parent, placement parent, or later for custody if your legal rights are terminated.

Therefore, if you are facing neglect or abuse allegations before CPS/DCS or if charges are being alleged against you by the state’s attorney general in juvenile court or if the state prosecutor is charging you with abuse or neglect or injury of your child in state court, contact the qualified attorneys at Ayala Law. We know juvenile and criminal law, and we will work diligently to represent you and protect your interests and your rights against CPS/DCS so that your life with your children can be re-established and so that you can continue on a normal path, with your children returned to your custody.

Contact Ayala Law Juvenile And CPS Defense Attorneys

No matter what juvenile matter you are facing or if there is CPS/DCS intervention involving your family, the experienced juvenile law attorneys in Tucson at Ayala Law Office, P.C., will be there to assist you. Please call us today at 520-585-4501 or email us to discuss the specifics of your case.