transparency

For more than a century, there has been a tradition of maintaining confidentiality in the juvenile and family courts, where abuse, neglect, juvenile delinquency, and even paternity cases are held. In various forms, virtually every county or jurisdiction in every state has a specific court or judge designated to hear issues related to children and families.

Filling the Senate-confirmed spots in the federal government is a time-consuming process. It is understandable that, as that process slowly grinds forward, cabinet leaders would bring in some short-term advisors to help shape early policy on issues.

A fortnight ago, the appeals court for the Second Appellate District in California invalidated a court order that had eased media access to Los Angeles County’s otherwise closed juvenile dependency hearings.

Demonstrators gathered outside the Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Court in Los Angeles today to express support for Presiding Judge Michael Nash’s 2012 blanket order easing media and public access to the County’s Juvenile Dependency Court.

Sunshine Is Good for Children Matthew Fraidin, Associate Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Fraidin, who oversees a clinical program where students represent birth parents in maltreatment cases, delivered the following remarks within his testimony at a Washington, D.C.

A woman, with drawn cheeks and well into her forties, steps out of the juror’s box and takes a seat before Judge William Davis in his Siskiyou County California courtroom. She just had a relapse, another hurdle in a life-long struggle with drugs and alcohol that contributed to her son’s entrance into foster care six years ago.