The most common question I’m asked when folks take the time to contact me is how to find an attorney in their state. The second most common question is if I can represent someone in a state other than New Hampshire, and the answer is "no."

I don’t have a magic formula for locating an attorney, and usually it makes a difference whether or not the charges are criminal or civil.

If you’re the subject of a criminal child abuse allegation, I would recommend calling the National Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center. They have information on criminal attorneys experienced in child abuse defense in almost every state.

What the Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center does NOT have is access to long list of attorneys who do the civil defense, such as I do. The reason for this is that most states don’t allocate as much money to defend the civil charges, and most attorneys who do the civil defense don’t sign up for out of state continuing legal education classes ("CLE’s.")

If someone writes or e-mails me, here’s what I tell them:

• In Massachusetts, there are several good attorneys with the civil matters. Gregg Hession, and Barbara Johnson are two whose web sites are worth visiting.

  Chester Darling, Alan Goodman, and Dan Henderson have been mentioned in Mass News reports as fighting DSS as well.

  In Washington, Gary Preble is a good bet, his site has some interesting information about the Wenatchee Witchhunt.

• In California, Jon Beaver is in Placer County. While he doesn't have a WWW site, he sometimes posts in the newsgroup alt.support.child-protective-services.

• In Florida, consider The A-Team. While I haven't had many dealings with them, some people who have are vocal about the problems, this Google search is a good place to start. They also practice law in several other states.

Beyond those, I just don’t have a pile of information. You could try a "google" search on "child abuse defense attorney," but I tried it, and one of my own pages came out close to the top. Add your two letter state acronym to narrow the results.

One method I’ve used in the past is to search the state’s case law. To get to ANY state’s web site, type in "www.state.xx.us," where "xx" is the two letter abbreviation for the state. All states have statutes on line, but not all have case law on line. If you can find the supreme court cases, do a search on "child abuse" or "child neglect" or "In re:", which is how many juvenile cases are named in Supreme Courts. Find a child abuse case, and see who argued it for the parent. Contact the state bar association to see where the attorney is. Get a few names, and call the one closest to you. If he can’t represent you, he might know someone who can.

Lois Law has statutory and case law, and they have short guest memberships for free. Their monthly fee is a bit stiff for a parent, but it might be worth it while the case is going on to sign up. Westlaw and Lexis have one time search fees, but they’re pretty expensive. Findlaw has a lawyer search function, but I haven’t found it to be terribly useful, since "child abuse defense" isn’t a listed specialty. Searching your state’s case law for attorneys who have argued cases to the state supreme court is really a better way to go.

Another method I’ve used that’s been successful is to locate a large newspaper near where you live, and search their archives for stories about CPS in your state, using whatever acronym the state uses. Many times, they’ll get quotes from attorneys who regularly go against them. Pull their names from the paper, call 411, and give the attorney a call. You’ll likely be able to get a referral if he or she can’t help you directly because of geography. To find almost any newspaper in the country, Yahoo and The US Newspaper List have great sites

This is really exactly what I’d tell you if you called or e-mailed me, so please try these methods before calling me. I’ve gotten far too many calls in the past year to be able to answer questions about this.

Last updated 2003 March 25.