Mission & History

The mission of The Children’s LAW Center is to promote the best possible outcomes for children and families in transition or crisis by providing access to legal services and support they could not otherwise afford and by advancing collaborative, non-adversarial options for resolving conflicts outside the court system.

Through its programs and services the Children’s Law Center strives to create safe, stable environments for children whose parents are in chronic conflict.

To achieve these goals the Children’s Law Center administers the following programs:

LEGAL REPRESENTATION

MEDIATION

LAWLINE

ADVOCACY

TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS

Our History

In November 1992, a six-year-old girl was shot and killed by her father during a supervised visitation session at the office of the Child Protection Council of Northeastern Connecticut. From this tragedy sprang a coalition of concerned professionals and parents united to examine the weaknesses in the system that had failed that child. The lack of legal services for children in family court was identified as a major concern, which led to the founding of the Children’s Law Center.

In 1996, the Children’s Law Center hired its first staff attorney, Garret Tuller, through a contractual arrangement with Connecticut Legal Services. Under his direction the organization represented over 200 abuse and neglect cases in juvenile court. In 2002, the Children’s Law Center relocated its office from eastern Connecticut to Hartford, to become more accessible to a wider demographic of clients.

We served 1,742 children in 2023:

763 children in 523 families through Legal Representation

54 children in 38 families through Families in Transition