Will Beaumont

Divorce Lawyer: What Happens Louisiana’s DSS Comes Knocking

Child custody in can encompass a lot of various laws.  Here is a brief summary on the laws concerning when the state takes your child, as applied to a Louisiana case.

For obvious reasons, child custody can be a highly contested issue.  When a parent has imperiled his or her child’s upbringing, the State of Louisiana can seek to terminate that parent’s parental rights.  The State of Louisiana acts through what was once commonly referred to as the Department of Social Services (DSS).  Whether your opposing party is DSS or your former spouse’s divorce lawyer, you can bet that the court will be rigorously seeking what it believes is in the best interest of the child.

When DSS gets involved, it must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the parent abandoned his or her child to end parental rights.   In some cases, the divorce lawyer or family attorney from DSS may seek criminal prosecution against a spouse for criminal neglect of family.

To use Louisiana case law as an example, the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit ruled on at least one case regarding the issue of child abandonment and termination of parental rights in 2008. The case involves mother, Olivia, who is allegedly a drug addict.

In 2007, Olivia’s twins were born in 2007 with ethanol, THC, and cocaine in their system.  They were very frail and weak.  However, Olivia never visited them in the hospital once she was released.   The court found that Olivia spent all of her adult life seeking drugs.  As such, the court concluded that the DSS’s divorce lawyer or other counsel proved by clear and convincing evidence that she abandoned her child and termination was warranted.

Olivia did not believe the DSS complied with the requirements in the Louisiana Children’s Code.  However, the court did not buy her argument.  When the DSS files a Petition for Termination of Parental Rights, it is not a precondition to apply to the court to forgo attempts at reunification. Nonetheless, in this case, the DSS did prepare a reunification plan but Olivia did not comply with its provisions.

So what can your divorce lawyer take from this case? The Department of Social Services can attempt to take your minor child away from you if you are neglecting your duties as a parent.  Going on drug expeditions and being incarcerated habitually or continuously may constitute neglect of a parent’s duty.  

 When faced with problems that could endanger custody of your child, it is important to hire a divorce lawyer so as not to take on the DSS unrepresented, to have someone fight for you every day, and to keep you informed of your case.  You may find that some of the case facts in our blog series bare similar resemblance to your case.  If so, remember these cases serve as a guide.  And just because a case turned out one way, does not guarantee that your case will turn out the same way.

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