BRAZOS VALLEY CPS Lawyers
WE STAND UP TO CPSThe experienced CPS Defense Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help Parents protect their rights to their children from CPS in Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington, and Surrounding Counties.
Serving Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Washington & Surrounding Counties
CPS Lawyers Serving The Brazos Valley in Bryan | College Station & Navasota, Texas
Next to a Criminal investigation or proceeding, a CPS investigation is probably the most stressful legal matter that a parent will ever face. It’s difficult to even express the feelings of fear, frustration, and helplessness that parents experience throughout a CPS proceeding. If you have found yourself the subject of a CPS investigation, please understand that your parental rights are in jeopardy. If you are facing a CPS investigation in Bryan | College Station, Navasota, Brenham, or other areas within Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington, Walker and surrounding counties, you need to retain the services of an experienced CPS lawyer in order to defend your rights and, in some cases, to ultimately win your children back. Understand, that just because a lawyer says they practice family law, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are qualified or experienced enough to handle your CPS Defense matter. You should look for a Family Law Attorney that has handled complex CPS and even Criminal Defense cases involving family violence and child abuse claims to increase your chances for success. CPS cases are not purely a family law case, instead they have a criminal element to them as many CPS cases eventually result in criminal charges such as “child endangerment,” “possession/distribution of controlled substance” or “assault family violence” charges being filed against the parent. It is imperative that your CPS Lawyer also has an understanding of the risks to a potential criminal case as well so that your criminal defense is not damaged by actions taken in your CPS case.
The CPS Lawyers with Nick Davis Law prior to focusing primarily on family law cases, also practiced Criminal Defense in large Texas counties and will put that knowledge and experience to work in your CPS investigation.
If Child Protective Services is investigating you or a family member in Bryan | College Station, Navasota, Brenham, or other areas within Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Washington, and surrounding counties, our CPS Lawyers can help.
Above all, think twice before talking to CPS without an experienced CPS Lawyer with you. It is very unlikely that you will be able to talk your way out of the situation. CPS agents are trained to see evidence of abuse and more than likely they will find it, even if it means assuming the worst from otherwise harmless or benign statements and circumstances and construe them as signs of questionable or abusive conduct. The best approach when confronted by CPS is to be polite and tell them you wish to speak with an attorney before talking with CPS.
Nick Davis Law offers all prospective CPS Defense clients a Free Case Evaluation by phone or virtual conference as well as payment plans. Contact our office at (979) 417-2220.
Can CPS Really Remove My Children?
Absolutely. If a Child Protective Services agent believes that your children are exposed to something that poses an “imminent threat” to their emotional or physical wellbeing, CPS can remove your children. In theory, Child Protective Services is only supposed to remove children when there is evidence of some form of abuse or neglect and there are no other alternatives to keep the children in the house, but in practice the evidence that CPS will find to justify a removal is normally less than substantial. Often times, the removal is based more on the subjective opinion of the CPS investigator and this removal can be the beginning of a long court proceeding.
What Happens After CPS Takes My Children?
If Child Protective Services removes your children, it is required that a hearing be set in 14 days from the removal to give you the opportunity to defeat CPS grounds for the removal and hopefully get your children back. This is the absolutely best chance you have to regain your children and potentially avoid the court proceedings.
Usually at the hearing CPS will try to get you to enter into a placement agreement with them or you can have the hearing. Sometimes there may be strategic reasons to enter into an agreement with CPS. Often times, the agreement is done to keep the client from testifying and exposing themselves to criminal liability. But, for the most part, it is best to proceed with the hearing and contest CPS’ removal. You often will have little to lose and much to gain by having the hearing.
If you enter into an agreement with CPS, they will be given Temporary Conservatorship Rights over the child and you will likely have very restricted access to the child. Usually you will only be permitted to see your child for an hour every week at a supervised facility. This will likely continue until you complete your court ordered services that will be part of any CPS agreement.
The experienced CPS Lawyers at Nick Davis Law in Bryan | College Station, Brenham & Navasota Texas will analyze the allegations and circumstances of your CPS investigation, and advise you on the best options.
CPS Topics You May Find Useful
To Learn More about your options in fighting Child Protective Services in Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced CPS Lawyers in Bryan | College Station to develop a strategy to protect your parental rights.
Services
CPS Problems We Solve
CPS Investigations
Our experienced CPS Lawyers serving Bryan | College Station, Navasota, Brenham and surrounding areas can guide you through a CPS investigation and fight to get them out of your life.
CPS Removals
Has CPS removed your children? Our Trusted CPS Lawyers will relentlessly fight Child Protective Services to get your children back. Our CPS Lawyers can strategically prepare your case and put the burden of proof on CPS.
CPS Terminations
Has your CPS case turned into a suit to terminate your parental rights? The CPS Defense Attorneys at Nick Davis Law will defend your parental rights, work to defeat CPS’ termination suit and strive for a resolution or success at trial.
Reviews
What Clients Say
At all times, we put our client’s interests first. The CPS Defense Lawyers at Nick Davis Law serving Bryan | College Station, Navasota, Brenham and surrounding areas are proud of their reputation and record for helping parents in difficult CPS Removal and Termination Suits. We are ready to help you succeed as well. Contact us for a free case evaluation to learn what we can do for your case.
Highly recommend - Jerri Y
Highly recommend - Jerri Y
An Excellent Attorney - Michael
An Excellent Attorney - Michael
Honest, Trustworthy Attorney - Veronica
Honest, Trustworthy Attorney - Veronica
Super Lawyer, Best of the Best - Joe C
Super Lawyer, Best of the Best - Joe C
Client focused attorney
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is CPS Investigating Me?
Simply put, CPS is investigating you because someone (probably someone close to you) reported you to CPS. The most likely suspects for reporting you to CPS are family members (especially grandparents or siblings with whom you’ve had conflict), an ex spouse or partner, a school teacher, a doctor, a counselor, or a neighbor. The problem is, you usually will not find out who reported you unless you case actually goes to trial. The person that reports you is granted anonymity and even immunity from civil or criminal prosecution if the report turns out to be without merit. The policy behind this is good, but it can really be abusive. Anyone that wants to harass you can simply report you to CPS and for the most part, there is nothing you can do to them if the report is completely false and done in bad faith. This happens all the time.
The problem with a CPS report is that even a frivolous one or exaggerated claim can easily turn into a full blown CPS removal or termination lawsuit.
Always suspect that you were turned in by someone close to you and because of this, do not speak to anyone about your case or the investigation. Instead, find an experienced CPS Lawyer to help you analyze the allegations and facts and develop a strategy for confront the allegations and getting CPS out of your life.
The experienced Bryan | College Station, Brenham, Navasota CPS Defense Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help you develop a strategic plan to defend against your allegations. To Learn how we can help protect you parental rights in a CPS case in Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced CPS Lawyers in Bryan | College Station.
Should I talk with the CPS Investigator?
The experienced CPS Lawyers at Nick Davis Law instruct their clients to treat a CPS Investigator just as you would a Police Detective asking you questions about a crime. The best response is to politely tell them you will be happy to cooperate but want to speak with an attorney first. Most clients make the mistake of trying to talk their way out of a CPS investigation and this tends to cause more problems. When CPS is investigating, they are looking for signs of abuse or neglect and sometimes the harder a person wants to look for something, the more likely they are to find it.
The problem with a CPS Investigation is that the questions don’t stop at what the allegation originally was. For instance, the allegation could be that you leave your children at home alone. CPS may confront you about this and then one question may lead to another at which point CPS asks you to take a drug test. At this point, if you decline to take a drug test, they will wonder, why. Then perhaps that will be enough for them to threaten to remove your children unless you submit to a test at which point you could test positive for marijuana or some other drug, for which you may even have a prescription, and then you will have to go through the hassle of getting CPS out of your life after failing the drug test, when the originally allegation had nothing to do with Drugs. This scenario can happy with a variety of other things to such as a disclosure about mental health problems or previous substance abuse issues by you or anyone else that lives in the residence.
The experienced CPS Defense Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help put distance between you and CPS and minimize the risk of talking too much and prevent CPS from exaggerating or twist your words around to find evidence of abuse. To Learn how we can help protect you parental rights in a CPS case in Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced CPS Lawyers in Bryan | College Station, Brenham, and Navasota Texas.
What is an Attorney Ad Litem?
When CPS removes your children, an Attorney Ad Litem will be appointed for your children. The Attorney Ad Litem is supposed to be your child’s advocate. In theory their role is to advocate for what your child wants, just as any attorney would do for an adult. If the children are too young to intelligently express their desires, then the Attorney Ad Litem will assume a sort of “dual role” which is to advocate for what the child wants AND what is in the child’s best interest. This of course can cause a bit of a conflict. For example, the child may want to be returned to their parents, but the Attorney Ad Litem may deem it is not in their best interest to be returned and therefore the Ad Litem will assume that position in court. In practice though, it seems that regardless of the age of the child (unless they are an older teenager) the Attorney Ad Litem will assume this dual role regardless of the real desires of the children. In many cases, the Attorney Ad Litem will side with CPS and make decisions that increase the litigation in the case. It’s hard to understand the real motivations of the Attorney Ad Litem at times. Perhaps they truly believe it is their job to be an obsticle to the parents getting their children back because they believe they are doing what is best for them. Hopefully it is that and not that they realize that since they are court appointed, they get paid more the longer the case goes on.
Termination of Parental Rights
The Termination of Parental Rights is the equivalent of the Death Penalty in a Civil Proceeding. In a CPS case, if your children are removed, a lawsuit will be filed in court. In almost every lawsuit, CPS will seek to terminate parental rights. This is why winning the 14 day hearing can be crucial to the ultimate success of your case and it’s also why you probably should not enter into any agreements with CPS unless it is a last resort.
In the court proceeding, CPS will request that the court require you to complete a variety of “services.” Often times these services are designed to give you help with some underlying need. For instance, it could be a parenting class, a batters intervention program, substance abuse counseling, submitting to counseling or a psychological examination. Some of these services can take weeks and months to complete. By law the CPS case must be resolved in 1 year. So, if you fail to complete your services on time, CPS will normally use that as justification that your parental rights should be terminated. At the same time though, you have to be careful in how you handle the services because anything you do or say in them will ultimately be conveyed to CPS and this can hurt your overall case or even lead to a criminal proceeding. So it is imperative that you have an experienced CPS Lawyer on your side. Schedule a Free Case Evaluation with the Bryan | College Station, Brenham, Navasota CPS Lawyers serving Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington and surrounding counties.
CPS investigations regarding family violence.
CPS investigations over Family Violence Allegations are some of the most common cases we encounter, next to substance abuse charges. The problem with Family Violence Allegations are that it is so easy to find yourself caught in the middle of one. Here is how it can start. A neighbor could simply over hear an intense argument and contact the police or just report the incident to CPS. Anytime and allegation like this is reported CPS and/or the Police will show up to investigate it. Once this happens, parents tend to start talking and answering CPS’ or the polices questions which will usually lead to more questions. The longer the interaction, the higher the chances are for a CPS case or a criminal charge to take root. If anything is disclosed about a parent hitting, slapping, pushing, or throwing anything at or near the other parent, an arrest could take place for a Misdemeanor or felony assault depending upon the allegations. Things will only get worse if a parent ever says that they tried to call the police but the other parent took their phone from them. This could take an otherwise misdemeanor assault and increase it to a felony interference with an emergency phone call. Things can quickly spiral out of control.
Once CPS becomes aware of potential family violence claims, they will often require the “offending parent” to leave the residence to prevent them from removing the children. Sometimes, CPS will require the “abused parent” to file a request for a Protective Order and even pursue a divorce because if the parent doesn’t CPS will assume that the abused parent will not do what is necessary to protect their children.
The experienced CPS Defense Lawyers at Nick Davis Law can help address your Family Violence Allegations against CPS. To Learn how we can help protect you parental rights in a CPS case in Brazos, Waller, Walker, Washington & Surrounding Counties contact our experienced CPS Lawyers in Bryan | College Station, Brenham, and Navasota.
What is CASA?
CASA stands for “Court Appointed Special Advocates.” CASA volunteers are appointed in every CPS case that ends up in court. They are to look out for the “best interest” of the child. In our experience, CASA doesn’t have much of an impact in your case. They tend to parrot back whatever CPS is requesting. Additionally, it is likely that these CASA volunteers will be a bit “over the top” and find something wrong with almost everything you do as a parent. There are of course exceptions to this, but think about it. The people that tend to volunteer for this sort of role, tend to be “over the top” about alot of things. Don’t stress about them. Just be as nice as possible to them, because there is no need to get them motivated to really make you look bad.
We Can Help
Payment Plans & Free Consult
Contact our office to schedule a Free Case Evaluation with an experienced CPS lawyer serving Bryan College Station, Brenham, Navasota and surrounding areas. We regularly offer after-hour & Weekend phone consults so our client’s do not have to travel or take off work to speak with their CPS Lawyer.
Our CPS Lawyers serving Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Washington & Surrounding Counties also understand that litigation can be expensive. You shouldn’t have to compromise the quality of legal representation when it comes to your children. We strive to make exceptional legal representation in CPS available to all which is why we offer payment plans to help in these difficult times. Contact us to learn more.
Schedule A Consult
Bryan | College Station Office
Nick Davis Law
6750 Victoria Avenue, Suite 6
College Station, TX 77845
(979) 417-2220
Business Hours
Mon - Fri 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Payment Plans
We offer payment plans on all cases.
Our Mission
The Trusted Family, Divorce, CPS, Immigration, and Child Support Collection Lawyers at Nick Davis Law are dedicated to providing the best and most efficient representation possible to our clients to achieve their goals quickly and cost effectively. The Family | Divorce | Immigration | CPS | Child Support Collection Lawyers at Nick Davis Law maintain offices in The Woodlands, Texas and Bryan | College Station and serve all of Montgomery County, Brazos County, Walker County, Waller County, Grimes County, Washington County, Burleson County, San Jacinto County, Liberty County, Harris County, and surrounding counties.
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