The Family Justice Initiative is a national collaborative of children’s attorneys, parents’ attorneys, educators, researchers, national policy advocates, and lived experience experts who share a common goal: to increase access to high-quality legal representation for children and parents in child welfare cases. It’s led by the ABA Center on Children and the Law, the Children’s Law Center of California, and the Washington State Office of Public Defense.
Partnering for Families
We are a national initiative working to improve legal representation for families across the United States.
Our Founders
American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, Casey Family Programs, Center for Family Representation, and Children's Law Center of California
Learn MoreWhat's New
Read recent news articles, research, and resources.
The Office of Family Representation and Advocacy Opens in New Mexico
New Mexico is a long time member of the FJI community and we want to celebrate and congratulate the newly opened Office of Family Representation and Advocacy (OFRA). The Office is implementing high quality interdisciplinary legal representation and practice infrastructure that promise to improve child and family outcomes. OFRA’s work is driven by a fundamental…
Anti-Racist Lawyering In Practice Site Now Available!
FJI just launched the Anti-Racist Lawyering In Practice website. Collected here is a set of authoritative and adaptable resources, ideas, checklists, instructions, and templates for defense practitioners and multi-disciplinary professionals to examine the harm that children—particularly Black, Native American/Alaska Native, and Hispanic children—have experienced in the child welfare system and to intentionally adopt culturally responsive…
A good attorney can be hard to find for parents in the child welfare system. A new program could help.
If Senate Bill 907 and House Bill 1017 are passed into law they would create the Family Representation and Advocacy Program housed in a central office under the Administrative Office of the Courts. The program would supervise lawyers, oversee training, manage caseloads and compensation and issue standards of practice for attorneys representing children, indigent parents,…