Chief Justice Robin Jean Davis and Dean Joyce E. McConnell on January 11 jointly announced the creation of a new class focusing solely on civil abuse and neglect law to be taught this spring at the West Virginia University College of Law in Morgantown.
The class is being underwritten by the Supreme Court's Court Improvement Program Board, using training grant funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families.
“I am pleased to announce this wonderful opportunity for the children of West Virginia,” Dean McConnell said at a press conference announcing the new class. “This is a very exciting moment for me, for the law school, and for the Court.”
The class is “a very bold experiment in helping children and families,” Dean McConnell said.
Other classes taught at the law school, specifically "Family Law," "Child, Parent, and State," and "Domestic Violence Law" include abuse and neglect law within those broader contexts. In addition, the clinical program at the College of Law has often represented the interests of children. But this class, "Child Protection and the Law," will be the first solely to cover cases and issues presented under Chapter 49 of the West Virginia Code, which deals with child abuse and neglect cases handled by circuit courts.
The three-credit hour elective class will be for second- and third-year students.
“Chief Justice Davis has had the welfare of children on her agenda since she joined the bench. All the other justices are also very deeply concerned. This is a good moment for all of us and the children of West Virginia,” Dean McConnell said.
Chief Justice Davis said the Court has long been committed to protecting and empowering children in the court system, and the new class is part of that commitment.
“Fresh out of law school, attorneys may be appointed to represent parents or children in child abuse and neglect cases, or they may do so as public defenders. It is our hope that the 'Child Protection and the Law' course will prepare them for these important, unique advocacy roles,” Chief Justice Davis said. “We want to help young attorneys learn more about this area of the law so that they can do a better job for the children of our state."
"Abuse and neglect is probably thirty to forty percent of the caseload of circuit courts right now. We really need well-trained professionals in that area," said Circuit Judge Gary Johnson, Chairman of the Court Improvement Program Board, which creates and promotes initiatives that make the court system more responsive and efficient in achieving safety, permanency, well-being, due process, and timely resolutions for children and families in the child welfare system.
Young attorneys are thrown into abuse and neglect work if they take jobs as judicial law clerks, public defenders, assistant prosecutors, or if they are appointed to abuse and neglect cases by a circuit judge, said Judge Johnson, of the Twenty-Eighth Judicial Circuit in Nicholas County.
"There was a great need for knowledge in this area," he said. "The children of West Virginia need appropriate representation."
Dean McConnell, a nationally known scholar in domestic violence law, was very receptive when the Court Improvement Board approached her with the idea, Judge Johnson said.
“I think this is one of the most significant things we have done with the Court Improvement Board over the years,” Judge Johnson said.
And that is saying something.
The Court Improvement Program has many projects that are aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of children in child abuse and neglect cases while the court system finds them permanent homes. For example, the Board sponsored a series of judicial leadership roundtables around the state in March and April 2009. Circuit judges attended five regional roundtables with a national facilitator to discuss best practices in child abuse and neglect cases. The last roundtable will take place March 25 and 26 in Charleston.
For more than a decade, the Court Improvement Program also has provided annual training for judges, prosecutors, child and parent attorneys, foster parents, DHHR caseworkers, social workers, counselors and psychologists, Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers, law enforcement officers, and others involved in the child abuse and neglect process. The goal of these annual two-day sessions is to improve how child abuse and neglect cases are handled. In 2008, the Court and the College of Law Continuing Education Program collaborated to present these conferences. The 2010 sessions will be held June 21 to 22 in Canaan Valley, June 24 to 25 in Martinsburg, and July 12 to 13 in Huntington. More information will be posted soon on the Court Improvement Program Web site, www.wvcip.com.
Soon the Board plans to post on its Web site a video from the 2009 cross-training conference at Tamarack in Beckley, so that anyone who is not able to attend a conference in person can still get the benefit of the training. The Board also is working on a video for parents in child abuse and neglect cases that explains the procedure and the need for urgency. It will be available in early 2011.
The Child Abuse and Neglect Benchbook is available to the public on the Web sites of both the Court and Court Improvement Program. The Abuse and Neglect Benchbook and other resources are available on the Court Improvement Program Web site, www.wvcip.com.
In October West Virginia received one of the top grades in a national review of the way states appoint attorneys to represent the interests of children in abuse and neglect juvenile court proceedings. The peer-reviewed study, "A Child's Right to Counsel: A National Report Card on Legal Representation for Abused and Neglected Children," was conducted by First Star and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law. The report gave only two states a grade of "A+:" Connecticut and Massachusetts. West Virginia was one of nine states to earn an "A."
"While receiving a high mark in this area was quite a compliment, we will continue to strive to improve the lives of the children and families who come to court under dire circumstances," said Chief Justice Davis.
Abuse and neglect work is “The most important work we do,” Judge Johnson said.
He recalled handling a case involving a twelve-year-old girl. He terminated the parental rights of her biological parents, which infuriated her. She looked at him in court and said “I’ll never forgive you for this,” he said. But five years later she asked him for a letter of recommendation and thanked him for what he had done, because she had been adopted by a wonderful family.
“If we can intervene in a child’s life and make as sure as we can her life succeeds, we have done a lot,” Judge Johnson said.
The new law school class will be taught by Clarksburg attorney Catherine Munster, a member of the Court Improvement Program Board who also is of counsel to the Clarksburg law firm of McNeer, Highland, McMunn & Varner, L.C., the firm where she has worked since she graduated from the WVU law school in 1984. She also has been a trainer on child abuse and neglect at the Court's annual free multidisciplinary training conference since its inception over ten years ago.
She will be an adjunct professor and teach only this class.
As an attorney, Ms. Munster has focused on representing abused and neglected children and has actively pursued extensive child protection systems reform work throughout her more than thirty-year career. Her first collaboration with the state Supreme Court was as a member of the Broadwater Committee. That committee, the precursor to the Court Improvement Program Board, was created by Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman during her previous term on the Supreme Court.
A former child protection social worker, Ms. Munster said she was disappointed to find that there was no course solely on child abuse and neglect when she attended law school herself.
"It has long been a dream of mine to see the law school offer this class," she said.
The class was open to thirty students and was full when the semester began.
The class will address case law, statutes, rules, ethics, and practice. For example, she will teach the students how to talk to children who have been sodomized or raped about their experiences, which attorneys have to do if they are representing such children. The class also will present child protection practice issues from a variety of points of view through guest speakers on special topics.
Ms. Munster said that by the end of the course, some students may decide child abuse and neglect is not what they want to do. And that's fine with her.
"This is not easy work," Ms. Munster said. "You are talking about broken, beaten, burned up babies. The work is emotionally challenging as well as legally difficult, and it is not for everyone. But even if a lawyer decides not to undertake this type of practice, it's really important that people know these issues are out there. You don't have to do the work to care about the children in your neighborhood," said Ms. Munster.
“When you make a mistake, it is a child who will pay,” she said. But, she added, “The resilience of the human spirit is a remarkable thing to see.
“This is a great service the college of law and the Court are undertaking here. I am really proud to be a part of that,” she said.
Chief Justice Davis, Ms. Munster, Judge Johnson, and Dean McConnell said the new class is part of the collaboration between the Court, the Court Improvement Program Board, and the law school to improve the way the court system handles children and family issues.
"The Court has been very supportive of all of our endeavors on the Board, including this one," Ms. Munster said.
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