Child Custody Cases Being Sent To Probate Court

A Chicago Tribune article from last month asks whether the Dept. of Children and Family Services is diverting child custody cases to probate court merely to save money. If so, the money-saving move may actually be adding more cost and hardship for families that rely on critical state services, particularly foster families.

While juvenile court provides a much better process for handling such cases, including a stipend for foster parents and free medical care for foster kids, probate court offers no such things.

Illinois family lawyer Margaret Benson, executive director of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, told reporters that DCFS simply isn't doing its job.

Her organization provides free legal aid to children in the city's probate court and said that while DCFS-related cases made up 21 percent of her probate caseload in 2007, such cases more than doubled to 43 percent last year.

Judge Patrick Murphy also recognizes these problems and said about half of the cases in his probate courtroom have DCFS involvement:

"Juvenile court ... has social workers and lawyers. We don't have anything here. We can't sort out problems."

Even DCFS director Erwin McEwen admits that too many child welfare cases are going to probate court, but told reporters that the idea was to send "low-risk" cases in probate court about ten years ago. But he claims the judges are responsible for sending back cases they believe don't belong in probate court.

Meanwhile, foster parents like Cleaster Johnson, who is disabled and unemployed but raising four grandchildren, are caught in the middle. She rescued her fourth grandchild from a dangerous living situation but the case was sent to probate court, meaning she was not given the opportunity to claim the benefits and services of foster parenthood:

"They never gave me an option. I felt like, 'OK, they're slick.' This is all to save the state money."

If you believe your foster or child custody case is not being handled properly, Chicago family law attorneys are trained to help you. For more information, please visit our Related Resources links.

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