Media Appearances
Television
Russia Today - September 27, 2006 - Commentary on the Congressional Hearing relating to Masha Allen's adoption
Nancy Grace - January 18, 2006 - Background and commentary on Masha Allen
CourtTV - June 13, 2002 - Background and commentary on Danielle van Dam murder case
CNN - October 19, 1999 - Background and commentary on the state of the nation's foster care system
CNN - October 14, 1999 - Background and commentary on the threat of 100 foster parents of District of Columbia children to return them because the District's child welfare system was several months and millions of dollars behind in payments to day-care providers
The O’Reilly Factor - July 1999 - Commentary on child killer Marie Noe
Newspapers and Magazines
Boston Herald - Perv Cools Heels in Prison Hospital; Porn, abuse victim decries treatment
of her tormentor - January 17, 2006
A vile sex offender who adopted a 5-year-old from Russia only to turn her into a sex slave is being treated at the cushy Devens prison hospital - an arrangement that prompted cries of outrage from the now-13-year-old survivor.
"Masha feels that treatment is inappropriate and that what (Matthew) Mancuso deserves is punishment for the crimes he committed," said attorney James R. Marsh, who represents Masha Allen.
Boston Globe - Essex woman fights for better safeguards - February 2, 2006
Flatley became involved in Masha's case at the behest of Washington, D.C., lawyer and child welfare advocate James Marsh, who called her last fall after he realized what a large undertaking it would be.
Flatley agreed immediately and made plans to talk the following Monday after she returned from a weekend trip to South Beach in Miami. "This is typical Maureen," Marsh recounted. "She got to South Beach and saw John Quinones of ABC's 'Primetime' in the lobby of her hotel. She walked up to him, pitched the story, and on Monday morning came back and said, 'Primetime' is doing a special on this. Tell me more about the case."
New York Post - Couple Slam Adoption 'Scam' Lawyer - June 6, 2004
Experts say would-be parents in New York and nationwide must beware.
"The international adoption business is largely unregulated and fraught with scams - and dashed hopes," said James Marsh, an adoption lawyer in Westchester and senior fellow with the Center for Adoption Research in Massachusetts.
Poynter Online - Al's Morning Meeting: Fileswapper Busters - August 13, 2003
Concerned that information about your file-sharing username may have been subpoenaed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)? Check here to see if your username or IP address is on one of the subpoenas filed with the D.C. District Court. This information is drawn from the court's publicly available PACER database and will be updated when that system is updated.
The RIAA announced on June 25, 2003, that it will begin suing users of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing. According to the announcement, the RIAA will be targeting users who upload/share "substantial" amounts of copyrighted music.
It's interesting that law firms have begun advertising themselves as having special expertise in defending children who are accused of illegally downloading. Here is one I found.
American Bar Association Journal - The Most Vulnerable Clients - Attorneys Must Deal With Special Issues When Kids Come into Contact with the Courts - April 2003
In most cases, parents are given between six months and a year to show significant progress toward complying with court orders regarding their behavior. These mandates most often call for parents to undergo drug treatment, get a job, obtain suitable housing or take parenting classes, says James Marsh, founder of the Children's Law Center in Washington, D.C. Parents who fail to comply are stripped of their parental rights, and other permanency arrangements are sought for their children.
At least, the thinking goes, the children aren't left in suspended circumstances for an indefinite time. But while the safe families act has helped to introduce more certainty to the child welfare system and is widely hailed by children's lawyers as a step in the right direction, some say it can be a double-edged sword.
Sometimes, they suggest, it may be more productive in the long run to allow children to stay at home during efforts to help their parents improve their behavior. In some jurisdictions, for example, state agencies will require parents to submit to random drug testing to regain custody, even when drug use was not a factor in removing the children in the first place. But when a parent has a low-wage job and no car, says Haralambie, complying with the logistics of random drug tests can be next to
impossible.
Marsh agrees that the good intentions driving the safe families act sometimes create a catch-22. The act requires states to provide support services to help parents comply with court mandates to improve their behavior, but underfunded state programs often have many more applicants than they can serve, he says. Drug treatment programs, for instance, may not have enough spaces to serve all the people who have been ordered by courts to undergo treatment if they want to retain custody of their children.
Albany Times Union - Bill to require clergy to report abuse cases - June 20, 2002
The measure sounds complex, said James Marsh, director of legal and policy analysis for the Center for Social Work Management, a nationwide watchdog and consulting group. He said people who would be required to report abuse cases might be confused about who they must refer allegations to.
The Washington Times - Lost in foster care? Data only now reflect needs of the children - April 29, 2001
The child welfare system is, in the end, an information system, and there are legal consequences if files are lost because a social worker quits or some other foul-up, said James Marsh, a lawyer who has done pro bono adoptions in the District.
"It's like garbage in, garbage out. If the information is bad, the court won't make a good decision and the child won't end up in a good place," he said.
The Washington Post - D.C. Child Welfare Chief Drops Lawsuit - August 24, 2000
“It is an extraordinary remedy for a judge to order the head of any agency into court,” said James Marsh, president of The Children’s Law Center. “I think it was based on an act of desperation and the reality of the Brianna case.”
The Washington Post - Quote of the Day - January 16, 2000
"The judges don't have crystal balls. It's just like a computer: garbage in, garbage out."
-- James Marsh, president of the Children's Law Center, explaining that decisions in child abuse cases often suffer because the social workers who advise judges are overworked or are insufficiently trained.
The Washington Post - Judges Describe Agonizing Decisions - January 16, 2000
"The judges don't have crystal balls. It's just like a computer: garbage in, garbage out," said James Marsh, president of the Children's Law Center, who went on to give one reason that cases require close monitoring.
"A lot of times, there are other people living in the house, and there are people coming and going," Marsh said. "The family is in one house one day, and they could be in another house the next day. It's difficult for social workers who have 40 or 50 cases to get out there and visit the home."