Termination of parental rights has been called the civil law equivalent of the death penalty. It means losing your children. Permanently. So you’d think a parent facing that would get the best defense the system can offer. Instead, parents across the country say the lawyer appointed to defend them won’t return their calls, won’t look at their evidence, and has exactly one piece of advice. Do what CPS says.

And if that lawyer does nothing at all? In 1981, the Supreme Court decided parents have no absolute constitutional right to appointed counsel in these cases. No right to counsel means no right to effective counsel. Which means, in a lot of cases, no remedy at all.

This is the Father’s Advocacy Network podcast. I’m Adam Neuerburg. Today we’re exposing what happens on the parent’s side of the courtroom. The court-appointed attorneys who are supposed to stand between your family and the agency, and the system that lets them walk away from that job with no consequences.

Let’s start with the number one complaint we hear from parents. Their attorney’s only advice is to comply. Comply with everything. It doesn’t matter whether the allegations are true. It doesn’t matter whether the evidence is fabricated or the case plan is unreasonable. Parents report bringing proof that records were falsified, or that witness statements were twisted, and their attorney still tells them to cooperate. That isn’t a legal defense. That’s surrender.

Then there’s the silence. Parents routinely report they can’t reach their court-appointed attorney by phone, by email, by anything. Calls go unreturned for weeks. Meeting requests get denied. Some parents don’t speak with their attorney until minutes before a hearing. Some, not at all. And timing makes it worse. In many states, parents don’t get an attorney until moments before, or right after, the first court hearing. That’s often the most critical hearing of the whole case. It’s where judges routinely ratify removals caseworkers already made on their own authority. So by the time your lawyer shakes your hand, your children are already gone. The story about your family has already been told. And you’re already climbing uphill. Real representation means investigating. Reviewing records. Interviewing witnesses. Hiring experts. Challenging evidence. Cross-examining the caseworker. Our report found that’s exactly what isn’t happening. CPS’s version of events gets accepted at face value. Falsified records go unchallenged. Independent evaluations never get requested. The state’s case goes through untouched.

Now let’s look at the numbers behind all of this. In California, the average dependency attorney carries 273 clients. California’s own optimal standard is 77. Even its base-level maximum is 141. The real number is nearly double the maximum, and more than three times the optimal standard. National best practice, from the A-B-A and the N-A-C-C, is 100 clients per attorney. In Los Angeles, at the pandemic peak, our report puts the number at 207 or more. And in 2023, a RAND Corporation and ABA study concluded public defender workloads should be roughly one-third of the standards set back in 1973. It called the current national standards outdated, not empirically based, and inadequate. Our report notes that dependency attorneys face similar or worse ratios, with no comparable reform effort.

Now, here’s where I want to be very careful. Because whenever these numbers come out, the system has one answer ready. Give us more money. That’s not what this is about. Look at what these caseloads actually reveal. A system that’s comfortable processing parents in bulk. A system where a parent’s lawyer can skip the investigation, skip the motion, skip the phone call, and nothing happens to them. The problem isn’t a budget line. The problem is that nobody in this system answers to the parent.

So how did we get here? It goes back to one case. Lassiter versus Department of Social Services, 1981. The Supreme Court held there is no absolute due process right to appointed counsel for parents in termination of parental rights proceedings. The reasoning? Even though a parent may permanently lose their children, they aren’t at risk of losing their physical liberty. Read that again. Your freedom counts. Your children, apparently, count less.

Legal scholars call that ruling an insurmountable roadblock. Because without a constitutional right to counsel, there’s no right to effective counsel. And without that, there’s no legal mechanism to challenge an attorney who does nothing. Compare that to criminal court. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to effective assistance of counsel. If your criminal defense lawyer sleeps through your trial, you get a new trial. You get a jury. You get to confront and cross-examine witnesses. You’re presumed innocent. You can stay silent without it being held against you. Now the parent in dependency court. No jury in most states. Limited ability to challenge CPS evidence or witnesses. Silence or non-cooperation used as evidence against you. The burden often shifts to you to prove you’re fit. And no legal remedy when your attorney does nothing. As our report puts it, a thief gets more legal protection than a parent fighting to keep their children.

And it’s not just parents. According to our research, there are 14 states where children don’t even get their own lawyer in CPS cases. Then there’s the question of loyalty. In some jurisdictions, the same office or legal aid organization that represents parents also has relationships with the very agencies it’s supposed to be fighting. Attorneys who push CPS too hard risk getting rotated off the appointment list. So who exactly is that system rewarding? Not the lawyer who fights. The lawyer who goes along. Legal experts have described dependency court as, quote, a secretive, insular place where the rights of indigent parents to effective representation are sacrificed in favor of judicial expediency and entrenched insider groups. Courts are closed. Records are sealed. And parents who complain about their attorney have no meaningful place to go.

Let me make this concrete. These next examples are illustrations, built from the patterns parents describe in our report. Not one specific case. But if you’ve lived it, you’ll recognize them. Picture this. A parent finds fabricated statements and altered dates in the CPS case notes. They bring their attorney documentation proving it. The attorney says, focus on completing your case plan. No motion. No challenge. The falsification never reaches the judge. Now imagine a parent with independent drug tests, medical evaluations and character references that directly contradict the agency. They hand it all over and ask for it to be shown to the court. It never gets introduced. The expert never gets subpoenaed. The agency’s version becomes the only record the judge relies on. And picture one more. A hearing two weeks out. The parent calls, emails, leaves message after message. Nothing. On the day of the hearing, the attorney introduces themselves in the hallway, glances at the file for the first time, and agrees to whatever CPS recommends. The children stay in foster care another six months.

So what can you do if your attorney won’t fight? This isn’t legal advice. FAN is not a law firm. But here are steps drawn from our research. One. Keep a written log of every attempt to reach your attorney. The date, the time, how you tried, and whether they answered. Note every hearing where they didn’t present your evidence or challenge testimony. That record matters if you ever need to challenge their representation. Two. Put your requests to your attorney in writing. If you want your evidence or your witnesses in front of the judge, say so in writing, and keep a copy. Three. You can ask for a new attorney. Our report says you can file a written request with the court explaining the specific ways your attorney has failed you. Not returning calls. Not reviewing evidence. Not challenging false allegations. Judges can and do grant these requests. Four. If you or your family can manage it, consider a private attorney who focuses on dependency law. Studies cited in our report show parents with quality representation are significantly more likely to reunify, and have shorter cases. Five. If your attorney’s conduct crosses into ethical violations, like failing to communicate or failing to advocate, you can file a complaint with your state bar association. Even if nothing happens right away, it creates a record. Six. Request your case file. Court filings, CPS reports, everything you’re entitled to. Look for motions that were never filed, evidence that never got introduced, and orders agreed to without your knowledge. Write those down. And seven. Reach out. Groups like the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel and state-level parent advocacy groups can help. So can we. Go to fathers advocacy network dot com slash case help.

The full research report on how public defenders are failing parents is at fathers advocacy network dot com, in our foster care research section. In criminal court, a shoplifter gets a jury, the right to effective counsel, and the presumption of innocence. In dependency court, a parent can lose their children forever, represented by someone they’ve never met, in a closed courtroom with no jury. That isn’t a few bad lawyers. That’s a system built to process families, not protect them. If this made you angry, share it with one parent who’s been told to just comply. And follow the show so you don’t miss the next one. I’m Adam Neuerburg. This is the Father’s Advocacy Network. Let the silenced speak.