CHARLEE Court Services

What is Court Services?
CHARLEE provides an in-court liaison, who is experienced in dealing with dependency litigation and has up-to-date information (in the form of detailed reports) on every child in CHARLEE�s care. The court liaison is present for all hearings in which CHARLEE is involved, or in matters where the courts would like CHARLEE�s expertise and service. The court services staff covers all hearings before the three Court Dependency Circuit judges, hearings before the General Master, and judicial review hearings before the Citizen�s Review Panel. Support staff assist the liaisons by keeping track of the daily court calendars and tracking future court hearings. This is achieved by coordinating communication between the court liaisons and the CHARLEE caseworkers and by arranging with judicial and court staff for developing information to be heard by the court.

Information Highway: CHARLEE Court Services is the dependency system�s information highway. It is the only link between the Court, the social worker and the child. Because it is too difficult and potentially traumatic to bring children to court for each hearing, Juvenile Court Judges are forced to rely on the representations of the people appearing in Court. CHARLEE Court Services staff are the only professionals with current and thorough knowledge of the child�s case, daily life, progress, and desires. Court Services staff gather information, school records, therapeutic notes, and psychological and psychiatric evaluations from the over 30 case managers and supervisors located throughout Miami-Dade County.

Ours is a unique system that saves time and enables the case managers to spend time away from the courtroom and with the children. New programs that address domestic violence and substance abuse issues have used CHARLEE Court Services as a blueprint for success.

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