Settlement Concludes Years of Child Welfare Work in Nevada
On January 9, 2015, the federal district court in Nevada approved a settlement agreement awarding $1.575 million in damages in the lawsuit of Henry A. v. Willden. The settlement marked the conclusion of nearly a decade of work by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and its partners to reform the broken child welfare system in Clark County, Nevada. Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, is home to more than 70 percent of the state’s population and has roughly 3,600 children in foster care.
NCYL’s work in Nevada dates back to 2005, when NCYL began receiving numerous complaints from local advocates and foster parents. A lengthy investigation revealed a troubled system; for instance, between 2002 and mid- 2006, at least 79 children died of abuse or neglect while in the custody of Clark County Department of Family Services. In 2006, the case of Clark K. v. Guinn was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. NCYL, later joined by co-counsel Farella Braun & Martel, represented ten foster children who brought the case seeking injunctive relief on behalf of a class of all children in Clark County who were in or at risk of entering foster care. NCYL litigated the case for more than three years, until Judge Robert C. Jones declined to certify the class and the named plaintiffs had aged out of foster care or had been adopted, thereby forcing the plaintiffs to dismiss their case.
In 2010, NCYL and Morrison and Foerster filed Henry A. v. Willden ,on behalf of a new group of thirteen foster children in Clark County. This case sought injunctive relief and damages for the named plaintiffs and included three narrowly tailored classes. Early on, Judge Jones, who had preserved most of the Clark K. lawsuit at the motion to dismiss phase, reversed his prior decision and dismissed the Henry A. suit in its entirety. The plaintiffs successfully appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where a unanimous opinion written by the late Judge Betty Fletcher set important precedent regarding the ability of foster children to pursue their civil rights claims in court.
Despite this successful appeal, the delay that it caused pushed relief for the plaintiffs further down the road. As the lawsuit wound on, the plaintiffs aged out of foster care, moved home with their families, or were adopted. By the end of the case, they were living in four different states, and NCYL and MoFo traveled across the country in their work to continue representing the plaintiffs. However, as a result of the children’s exiting foster care, the court ruled that only relief in the form of money damages would be available to them.
Last spring, in the midst of trial preparations and shortly after the plaintiffs served their expert witness reports, the parties entered into settlement talks. The talks resulted in a settlement of $1.575 million dollars in damages, with each of the seven remaining clients receiving between $100,000 and $350,000, either in trust or in annuities that will pay out over time.
The results in this case were achieved through an incredible collective effort. Co-counsel Morrison & Foerster spared no resources in litigating the case. In Henry A. alone, Morrison & Foerster and NCYL worked over 17,000 hours employing more than 25 attorneys and 13 law clerks. NCYL is also grateful for the contributions of local counsel Wolfenzon Rolle and Alverson, Taylor, Mortensen & Sanders, as well as Shartsis Friese, who assisted in structuring the clients’ settlements
The awards will help the plaintiffs obtain a fresh start in life and bring opportunities like college within closer reach. Linda E., for instance, was in foster care from the age of 18 months until she turned 18 and aged out of the system. She recently married and gave birth to a baby boy, and plans to use her settlement funds to buy a home for her new family and to go to college so that she can pursue a career working with children.
Still, the plaintiffs in both Henry A. and Clark K. filed their lawsuits out of a desire to improve the system and prevent other children from experiencing what they did. That goal has yet to be achieved. Victor C., though glad to have received compensation for the harms that he suffered, wants people to know, “I didn’t go through years of fighting the system just to get money. I wanted to make sure that no one else was abused and mistreated.” His brother Leo C., also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, echoes this sentiment. He joined the lawsuit because “if I can help show what’s going on, the county will have to change and do right for the kids.” It is the hope of the Henry A. clients and their counsel that the damages awards in this case can serve as a catalyst for change in a system that continues to need serious scrutiny and repair.
NCYL attorneys Bill Grimm, Leecia Welch, Erin Liotta and Stephanie Krol worked on the Henry A. lawsuit.
