Parent Representation Project
Professor Sankaran has focused much of his work on improving outcomes for children by empowering parents and strengthening due process protection in the child welfare system. He sits on the Steering Committee of the ABA National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System and chairs the Michigan Court Improvement Project subcommittee on parent representation. Currently, he is working with the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and the State Court Administrative Project to conduct a comprehensive assessment of parent representation in the State of Michigan. He routinely conducts local, state, and national presentations on issues affecting parents, and has developed a training curriculum for new parents' attorneys. He and Professor Vandervort have drafted a comprehensive guide for parents' attorneys for the State of Michigan. Professor Sankaran also litigates systemic issues involving parental rights in appellate courts. For more information about this work, please contact Professor Sankaran at vss@umich.edu.
Filed an Application for Leave to Appeal in the Mays case which was granted by the Michigan Supreme Court on behalf of a father whose parental rights had been terminated. The key issue on appeal is wehther a parent's rights can be terminated because of technical non-compliance with a service plan without an underlying finding of unfitness. Here is a copy of the Court's Order. Argument will be in the Fall 2011.
Filed an emergency appeal on behalf of a non-offending father whose child was placed in foster care. Won an emergency reversal in the Michigan Court of Appeals which ordered the immediate return of the child to his father's care and the closing of the child protection case. Here is a copy of the Order.
Appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to represent an incarcerated father whose parental rights were terminated. The key issue in the case is whether the father's placement of the child with his sister obviated the need to terminate his parental rights. Read the Order granting leave here. Read the Appellant's brief. The Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' decision in the attached Order. Watch a video of the oral argument.
Filed an Application for Leave to Appeal in the Mitchell case in which the trial court terminated the rights of a father based on factors involving poverty. Here is a copy of the Application and the Reply Brief. The Supreme Court reversed the trial court's decision to terminate in the attached Order and adopted the dissenting Court of Appeals' Opinion.
Filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of the Children's Law Section in the Rood case. In the case, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed a decision to terminate a father's parental rights because the Department of Human Services failed to make reasonable efforts to reunify the child with is father. Click here for a copy of the amicus brief and here for a copy of the Court's decision.
Won the Hudson Morgan case before the Michigan Supreme Court in which he was appointed to represent a mother whose parental rights were terminated. Read the Opinion and Brief. Watch a video of the orgal argument.
Filed an Application for Leave to Appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court in the McBride case in which the trial court terminated the parental rights of an incarcerated father without providing him with an attorney. Amicus briefs were filed by the National Association of Counsel for Children, the National Coalition for the Right to Civil Counsel, and the National Lifer's Association. Here is a copy of the Application and Supplemental Brief. Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal over a strong dissent written by Justice Corrigan joined by Justice Kelly. Read the Order and dissenting opinions.
- A Hidden Crisis: The Need to Strengthen Representation of Parents in Child Protective Proceedings, Michigan Bar Journal (October 2010)
- National Survey on a Parent's Right to Counsel
- Michigan Child Welfare Journal Issue Focused on Issues Affecting Parents in the Child Welfare System (Winter 2009)
- Procedural Injustice: How the Practices and Procedures of the Child Welfare System Disempower Parents and Why it Matters, Michigan Child Welfare Law Journal (Fall 2007)
- Work Harder to Return Kids Home, Detroit Free Press (December 3, 2008)
- Fundamental Legal Right Often Denied Parents, Detroit Free Press (July 5, 2009)
- Termination of Michigan Inmate Parental Rights Was Miscarriage of Justice, Say Dissenting Justices, Michigan Lawyer's Weekly (July 6, 2009)
- Advocating for the Constitutional Rights of Nonresident Fathers by Vivek S. Sankaran
- Parens Patriae Run Amuck: The Child Welfare System's Disregard for the Constitutional Rights of Nonoffending Parents, by Vivek Sankaran