About CPS Watch Legal team
The CPS Watch Legal Team is an outgrowth of CPS Watch, a national non-profit organization that provides information and assistance to families involved with child welfare agencies (CPS). This team consists of attorneys from various backgrounds, including civil rights, juvenile law, dependency, family law and criminal law; as well as paralegals, case managers, litigation support specialists and advocates. We specialize in filing civil actions in federal court for injunctive or other relief to protect families.
MOTTO: “The liberty of the best of us can only be preserved if the rights of the worst of us are protected.”
This motto is the guiding principal of the CPS Watch Legal Team. We have entered into a covenant with the citizen to protect and preserve the Constitution of the United States, especially the Bill of Rights. Every citizen is promised and guaranteed a set of individual liberties that restrict the governmental exercise of power in certain ordinary affairs of daily life.
One of these areas is the individual’s right of family autonomy and integrity. The parent simply has a fundamental liberty interest in the care, control, companionship and custody of their children. If the state chooses to intrude upon that basic relationship, they must do so only to the extent the Constitution permits and they must do so very carefully, cognizant of the constitutional restrictions and prohibitions.
CPS Watch Legal Team is dedicated to the preservation of the individual liberty interest of both parent and child when the government, through the various state Departments of Child Welfare and Human Services, seeks to deprive the parent of their right to the custody and companionship of their child, either formally or informally.
The CPS Watch Legal Team brings over 75 years of combined legal experience to the problems in the foster care legal system of the United States. The Legal Team is designed to give maximum protection to the family threatened by official governmental action.
CPS Watch Legal Team offers:
- Training of parents in the exercise of their guaranteed rights;
- Publications explaining those rights and the legal procedures which threaten their rights.
- Consultation with local attorneys
- Legal complaints, motions, briefs and memorandum.
- The conducting of training sessions
- Consultations with parents and parent groups
- Legal representation when mass removal of children is involved.
- An active and aggressive defense in cases where the parent and child’s rights are threatened, invalidated or abused, at the State trial level, the Federal District Court level, and the Appellate level, both state and Federal, including legal representation in the United States Supreme Court.
The Legal Team Consists of:
- Phillip E Kuhn - Lead Counsel
- Marc Brotman - Associated Counsel
- Joe Nusbaum - Associated Counsel
- Joe Quick - Associated Counsel
- Michael Spotts - Associated Counsel
- Chris DeSantis - Associated Counsel
- Desere Howard - Team Coordinator and Client Liasion
- Cheryl Barnes - Littigation Specialist
- A complete and well trained paralegal staff
The legal team has a wealth of experience in civil rights litigations, criminal defense, child custody cases, large personal injury cases, and all aspects of governmental law.