Making the Legal System Work for Children and Parents

Learn About High-Quality Representation

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.

Advocacy

What is high-quality legal representation and how can it help families?

Partnering for Families

We are a national initiative working to improve legal representation for families across the United States.

Connect

Support our cause and join the initiative.

Curious about our approach? Contact us today.

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

What's New

FJI Spring Newsletter 2024

Welcome to the spring edition of the Family Justice Initiative newsletter. We hope you will find these resources helpful to your practice.

May 28, 2024

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…

March 25, 2024

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…

March 20, 2024