News item | 18-11-2022 | 4:30 pm
If the State intervenes in the family and wants to remove custody, parents will receive free legal assistance during the court case from the new year. They are then always assisted by a specialized juvenile lawyer, writes Minister Franc Weerwind for Legal Protection in a letter to the House of Representatives.
Parents who have been duped by the childcare allowance affair can already make use of legal assistance free of charge. In addition to this, the minister wants to make such a scheme available for 1.5 years to parents who are faced with a measure terminating their parental authority. The court then assigns parental authority to a youth care institution. Parents are no longer allowed to make decisions about their children.
“Although in practice parents can already make use of subsidized legal aid, it often happens that they are not represented by a lawyer in far-reaching proceedings. With the free legal assistance, I want to help those parents extra, because the lawyer can properly represent the interests of the parents.”
says Weatherwind.
Most drastic procedures
The free legal aid will be introduced in steps so that it is feasible for the Judiciary and the Legal Aid Board. The most far-reaching procedures come into consideration first, the measures terminating authority. The court, the Legal Aid Board and the legal profession work together. The parties together ensure that in these proceedings the family receives a telephone call from the lawyer offering free legal assistance. From July, the scheme will be expanded to include (urgent) custodial placements. The aim is to expand the scheme with (urgent) custodial placements from July.
The rights of families where a child has been placed in care will also be improved in the short term in other ways. The certified institutions will ensure that from the beginning of next year all their decisions about where the child can grow up will be submitted to the court. The certified institutions also look at how decision-making about the interaction between parents and children can be improved in the event of an out-of-home placement.
Workouts
Youth and family professionals receive training to conduct better fact-finding. They are also better trained to deal with dissatisfaction and (disciplinary) complaints. The complaint form is simplified. In the long term, it will be investigated whether the role of the juvenile judge can be made more active and whether the legal position of children under guardianship can be improved. In the case of custodial placements, the minister wants to ensure that as many brothers and sisters as possible are accommodated together somewhere.