Every year we honor a hero of Child Justice who has contributed to our vision of a future that is safe, stable and nurturing for children. This year's celebration will take place at Georgetown University Hotel & Conference Center and will include a tribute to our Hero of 2018. Also joining us for our 4th Annual Heroes of Child Justice will be our special guest, Johnny Mathis.

Tickets are on sale through September 20. There is limited seating capacity for this event so get your tickets before we sell out -- it will be a celebration you won't want to miss!

Tickets may also be purchased by check. Please make payment to Child Justice, Inc. and send to the following address:

8401 Colesville Road, Suite 300
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Program
Begins at 2:30pm

Drink & Dine
Delicious Hors d'oeuvres and Beverages

Live Auction
Starting at 3:00pm

Live Performance 
at 4:00pm

Dress Code
Business Casual

Child Justice is pleased to announce that it has received a favorable appellate ruling in a pivotal case in which it was an amicus curiae (Friend of the Court).

Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its ruling upholding the order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Davies v. Davies.

At issue was whether the Mother of a five-year-old boy must repatriate the child and return him to his Father in French St. Martin. The Second Circuit upheld the trial court and denied the Father’s Petition for Repatriation.

The Davies family – Mother, Father, and son K.D. – lived in French St. Martin. The Father was found by the trial court to be very abusive towards the Mother, both physically and emotionally. We recommend that you read the opinion below in order to have better understanding of the abuse the court held that Mother and K.D. endured.

The trial court found that the Father would abuse the Mother in front of K.D. (which is highly relevant under the governing law). The Mother fled the country and came to the United States, where the Father sued the Mother in Federal Court in New York, seeking the return of K.D. under Hague Convention’s Treaty on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“Hague Convention”). Of great to concern to Child Justice was the fact that other courts had turned a blind eye to the obvious and sad fact that abuse to a parent can also presage harm to the child – both due to the emotional harm of watching his Mother get beaten and because it raises the likelihood that the child will be beaten. Child Justice is pleased that the Second Circuit recognized this pragmatic point.

The relevant exception precluding repatriation of the child would be those instances where repatriation put the child at “grave risk” of “physical or psychological harm or otherwise place [him] in an intolerable situation[.]” Although the fact that the Mother was abused does not it itself justify denying repatriation of the child, the court recognized that there are circumstances – and they exist on these facts – where abuse to a parent can directly harm the child and show a likelihood of further harm to that child.

The Mother’s trial team from the law firm of McLaughlin & Stern did an amazing job in a nine-day trial, and the lower court found that Father’s abusive actions towards the Mother would cause K.D. the requisite “grave risk” of “psychological harm.”

Child Justice became involved during the appellate process because we were aware of other cases where abusive parents were granted repatriation despite a substantial history of abuse. Child Justice wanted to help ensure that the Second Circuit understood the issues at stake and that the trial court had ruled correctly.

With that goal in mind, Child Justice collaborated with several other amici and the law firms of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP, and filed three separate amicus curiae briefs with the Second Circuit, urging it to uphold the trial court.

Today the Second Circuit did just that and issued the attached order, noting that under the “grave-risk-of-harm exception to repatriation, ‘[t]he potential harm to the child must be severe, and the level of risk and danger required to trigger this exception has consistently been held to be very high.’” And that, “‘[t]his grave risk exception is to be interpreted narrowly[.]’” Nonetheless, after reciting the acts of abuse the Father was found to have committed, the Second Circuit upheld the trial court’s finding that “that K.D. was subjected to severe and persistent psychological abuse by Mr. Davies, and [] that this abuse would continue if K.D. returned to French St. Martin.”

Child Justice is quite pleased with this outcome and wishes to thank Lea Haber Kuck, Emma S. Gardner, Christina A. Pryor, and Eva Y. Chan of the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP for their outstanding work on the amicus curiae brief they drafted and filed on its behalf.

Child Justice’s legal team has been extremely active over the past two months.

Together with pro bono attorneys at O’Melveny & Myers we prepared for a major custody case that favorably settled on the eve of trial. The client was quite pleased with the outcome and we believe the settlement was in her and the children’s best interest.

Our preparation for that trial allowed us to depose a psychologist who often testifies against protective parents and draft a motion and supporting memorandum to strike that expert’s testimony as unsound “junk” science. This memorandum relied on two new Maryland Court of Appeals opinions that are quite favorable to Child Justice in that they make it more difficult for so-called experts to offer expert-opinion testimony that is based on ipse dixit (or, the expert’s mere say-so) without pointing to a scientific basis in support of the expert’s testimony.

Child Justice volunteer attorney, David Dorey filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals in support of a mother whose children were kidnapped to another state by their father.

In addition, Child Justice was an amicus curiae in a Hague Convention case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, filed by the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP. Child Justice was also an amicus in a so-called parental alienation case before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, filed by the D.C. office of Covington & Burling LLP. Finally, Child Justice was an amicus in a grandparent-custody case before the Texas Supreme Court, filed by the Dallas office of Baker Botts.

Further, Child Justice continues to assist an attorney who is representing a protective father in Frederick, Maryland who is trying to shield his young daughter from her stepfather, an adjudicated abuser of the girl’s mother. We are working with an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) expert who we hope will educate the court on the negative effects for a child who witnesses her mother being abused.

On September 27, 2017, Child Justice hosted Support a Cause at the Embassy Row Hotel. The rooftop bar provided a scenic view and the evening was spent talking with friends and supporters about Child Justice’s mission, current cases, and future endeavors. The Embassy Row Hotel donated a portion of every drink and food item purchased to Child Justice, and we were lucky enough to have set a record for attendance! Thank you to all who attended this great event, and because of its success, we hope to have more in the future!

On May 7th, 2017, we gathered with friends, family and supporters at the Annapolis Maritime Museum for our annual Heroes of Child Justice celebration. This year, we honored Shelley Rubin - Child Justice Board from Chair 2013-2017, Child Justice pro-bono partners from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, and Child Justice Board Member Anne H. Hoyer who also received a citation from MD Governor Larry Hogan recognizing her work as Director of the Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program. We were honored to also be joined by our special guest, Maryland Delegate C.T. Wilson, District 28, who was an active participant in the festivities.

Please feel free to browse through the gallery below to check out photos from the 2016 celebration!