One evening your are sitting at home with your family and there is a knock on your door. It could be in the middle of the night. On the other side of the door is a CPS or ACS worker. They may be accompanied by a police officer. They want to come in and talk to you. Allegations have been made against you. What do you do? The first issue is, do you let them into your house. They do not have any right to come into your house. You do not have to any obligation to talk to them, even if there is a police officer there. If you perceive that there are some potentially accurate allegations of child abuse or child neglect or maltreatment against you, it may not be in your best interest to let them in, or talk to them until you retain an attorney to defend you.
The Allegations Are Untrue
In the event you have done nothing wrong and you think this is a completely false complaint that the CPS and/or ACS worker are responding to, open the door and speak to them in the doorway. Don’t let them come in to your house to investigate. Ask them why are you here. Write down their name, the address of the agency they came from, the name of their investigating agency, their email, phone number and the name of their supervisor. Hopefully you will be able to convince the investigator the allegations against you are false and they will send you a letter stating the allegations were unfounded. If the investigator comes back to your house a second time, you should consider hiring a CPS or ACS defense attorney. If you receive a letter stating you have been indicated for child abuse or child neglect you definitely need to hire and experienced CPS or ACS defense attorney.
Elliot S. Schlissel, Esq. has been representing clients who have been investigated by CPS or ACS for more than 45 years. He can be reached at 800-344-6431 or emailed at elliot@sdnylaw.com.
