When a young person is in foster care and the permanency plan is that they will move to adulthood from foster care (aka “age out”), there are many obstacles for the youth to overcome. The local department of social services ...

In September 2025, 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward tragically died, allegedly due to an overdose, in a Baltimore hotel. A child in foster care, Kanaiyah had been placed in the hotel by the local department of social services (department), who had assigned ...

BOSTON, MA — To me, all things connected to classical mythology belie a treasure trove of timeless wisdom, ironies, metaphors and paradoxes. A prime example is my favorite month of the year: January, named after Janus, the Roman god depicted ...

According to a Department of Justice report title Child Sex Trafficking in the United States, “Federal prosecutions of child-only sex trafficking cases increased 17% from 2019 to 2020, and children made up 69% of victims in newly charged sex trafficking ...

MILWAUKEE, WI — One of the theories of American law is that since we have 51 sets of law (one for each state and one for Washington D.C.), states can learn from each other. With few significant differences between one ...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Divorce rates for individuals 65 years of age and older have been on the rise over the past 10 years. Some of these cases end in a tragic way, where one spouse dies before a divorce ...

The Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration provides services to support people with developmental disabilities. Currently, DDA provides services for 20,500 individuals in Maryland. It is important for attorneys and advocates, who assist eligible individuals and their families, to be aware of ...

Before seeking to remove a child from their home, the Department of Social Services is required to make reasonable efforts to prevent the removal of children from their family, except in certain statutorily defined emergency circumstances. Reasonable efforts must be ...

Divorce is rarely simple. Missouri courts are accustomed to navigating the complexities of dividing property and, in cases involving children, applying the “best interest of the child” standard to determine custody arrangements. Yet in cases involving pets, courts face a ...

After my first few years as a child’s advocate in Child In Need of Assistance proceedings, it became clear to me that most of my work would involve not only legal advocacy before the juvenile court, but also social support ...