At the intersection of criminal and civil law, a serious problem exists. Each year, up to 58,000 children in the United States are court-ordered into unsafe situations with abusive parents. Custody and access of children is widely ignored when victims of crime receive services. Due to this gap in services, 989 children (as of 6/2024) have been murdered in this country by a divorcing or separating parent since 2008 (when tracking of these crimes began). Of these child murders,139 are known to have occurred after a court ordered the child to have contact with the dangerous parent over the objection of a safe parent or caregiver. In Maryland, twenty-one children have lost their lives at the hands of a parent/caregiver - five of these deaths were due to a court making an unsafe order.

Since 2013, Child Justice has worked to protect Maryland children from unsafe and unsupervised access with a dangerous parent by providing free legal representation, support and resources to non-offending protective parents/caregivers. JOIN US.

We welcome solo practitioners, small firms, large firms, law students, local businesses and private individuals to join Child Justice as we work to protect our most vulnerable children.