Practice Areas
We are privileged to represent our clients in court.
Legal Services Centered Around You.
Family Law
We understand that dealing with matters involving family can be extremely difficult and emotional. We can provide you with the support and guidance that you need to get through such stressful times. Our office has a full-service family law practice, including dissolution (divorce), legal separation, child support, spousal support, custody and visitation. We can also help you obtain or defend against a domestic violence restraining order. Mr. Powell has been practicing family law for over 20 years across the Bay Area.
Civil Rights
The purpose of 42 U.S.C. §1983, the federal statute under which civil rights actions arise, is to deter persons who act on behalf of state and local agencies from using the badge of their authority to deprive individuals of their federally granted rights. There is generally a two-year statute of limitations (deadline) to file a federal civil rights lawsuit. There is a six-month deadline for any state law claims (such as intentional infliction of emotional distress or battery). Do not calculate the deadline to file yourself – there are many factors that go into when your final deadline is. A lawyer should evaluate your circumstances and advise the deadline by which you should file your lawsuit.
Juvenile Dependency
We represent parents whose children have been removed by CPS or are otherwise facing family interference from the juvenile dependency system. Speak to an attorney before you return a call from a social worker. You should know your rights prior to ever speaking with a social worker, as well as the risks associated with voluntarily letting CPS into your life.
Wrongful Removal of Children by CPS
Familial Association Rights under the Fourteenth Amendment:
Parents and children have a well-established constitutional right to live together without governmental interference. The right is an essential liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that parents and children will not be separated by the state without due process of law, except in an emergency.
Government officials, including social workers, violate those rights if they remove a child from the custody of a parent without a warrant, unless they first conduct a reasonable investigation, and then the information they possess at the time of seizure is such as provides a reasonable cause to believe that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury and there are no reasonable, less intrusive means to avoid the injury, and the circumstances are so imminent that the harm is likely to occur in the time necessary to obtain a protective custody warrant from the court.
The Constitution prohibits the removal of a child without a warrant based on emotional harm.
Juvenile Dependency
We represent parents whose children have been removed by CPS or are otherwise facing family interference from the juvenile dependency system. We believe, and research and data support the fact, that children in foster care would be better off with their own families. The government should provide services to struggling families and not tear them apart unless removal from the home is the only alternative. If removal from the home is insisted on by the court, we advocate for kinship placement in lieu of foster care. Too often, family members are ignored or rebuffed as possible placements – it is necessary to have a lawyer from the beginning who will prepare and push for a family member to be evaluated and approved for placement.
Speak to an attorney before you return a call from a social worker. You should know your rights prior to ever speaking with a social worker, as well as the risks associated with voluntarily letting CPS into your life.
Our attorneys are trial lawyers and generally do not do appellate work, so it is best to contact our office at the very beginning of your juvenile dependency issue.