Dawne Mitchell, Chief Attorney of The Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, along with AFC (attorney for the child) experts, Karen J. Freedman, President and Founder and Glenn Metsch-Ampel, Executive Director of Lawyers For Children, and Liberty Aldrich (ret.), the Executive Director of the Children’s Law Center amplify the role attorneys play when representing children in Family Court in a new op-ed for the New York Law Journal.

“The AFC is the only participant in the litigation who is duty bound to present a counseled, legal advocacy position to the court that is based on a dispassionate and objective articulation of the child’s wishes and needs,” they write in part. “Rule 7.2 obligates AFCs to ascertain the child’s position by consulting with their client in a manner consistent with the child’s capabilities and to be directed by the wishes of their client.”

“Judges are tasked with determining the child’s best interest,” they continue. “That is their job, which they do faithfully every day. They deserve the opportunity to make that decision based on a full record, which cannot exist without taking into account the child’s position.”

Read the full piece here.