This article was written by a social worker who didn’t want her name used. If anyone else wants to share their story if you a social worker, please contact me you can remain anonymous. Kimberly Howell 920-629-7487kahowell29@gmail.com

How does CPS get away with lying on the stand? (https://www.quora.com/How-does-CPS-get-away-with-lying-on-the-stand
Let me tell you a story about perjury from a child protection worker's perspective. I was preparing to testify at a trial for a little girl who had been apprehended from a mother on grounds of medical neglect. The little girl had some special medical needs that her mother failed to provide for in any meaningful way. The mother had failed to attend access visits or comply with any of our requests and no family had yet come forward so we were seeking legal wardship for purposes of adoption.
Partway through the legal process, the maternal grandmother came forward seeking custody. We adjourned to assess the grandmother and present a report to the court. The grandmother did exceptionally well, she was gainfully employed, had a good support network, demonstrated a good understanding of how to provide for her granddaughter's special medical needs, she owned a house and kept it well. She had a nice bedroom prepared and had all the clothing and toys to care for her granddaughter. My reported recommendation was placement with the grandmother.
On the day of the trial, I met with my lawyer at a coffee shop across from the court to prepare for the day. For complicated reasons, I believed had to do with funding and racism (the family was black), the agency lawyer on direction from CPS management was still seeking legal wardship for purposes of adoption. I told her (the lawyer) that was not reasonable, informed her of my recommendations and that I could not support what she was asking on the stand. The lawyer became enraged and looking in my eyes said very bluntly “If you torpedo my case I’ll destroy you”. “You will support legal custody for purposes of adoption”. I was stunned and very confused but said nothing for lack of time to process what had just happened. I was literally a deer in the headlights.
(It turns out my supervisor approved report was withheld and replaced by a management generated report at the last minute. At the time of this confrontation with my lawyer I didn’t yet know about my report being replaced and no one in management thought it might be a good idea to let me know. People need to understand that child protection work is highly politicized fast moving semi-organized chaos so this is not uncommon or surprising. I don’t know if my lawyer ever even saw my report and we didn’t have a chance to discuss the case until that morning just a few minutes before we were due in court. My job was to toe the team line and follow legal counsels lead but in this case I made the choice not to on the basis of available evidence. I had to make a choice between keeping my job and telling the truth. Public servants everywhere have to make this choice on a regular basis).
When our case was called and I went up onto the stand I was really confused and afraid but knew I couldn’t perjure myself. I told the truth and the grandmother won custody. The lawyer kept her promise and made my life difficult through false accusations and other forms of harassment. Management also began treating me differently and I was assigned only the most difficult cases and my paperwork demands were increased very substantially. Disillusioned I eventually got sick and quit child protection.
CPS agency politics aside, to this day I am convinced that the many problems that exist in our family legal system are directly related to the many problems inherent to the business of law. There are too many degrees of separation between involved parties and too many hyper-competitive lawyers without moral or ethical limits who believe making clients happy by winning at all costs is their job rules be damned, corrupting the law they are supposed to be serving in good faith. Is the law supposed to be a for profit business or a necessary public service? How do we reconcile the conflict of interest between competitive profitability and justice?
CPS gets away with lying on the stand because the family court has no transparency or accountability specifically for the protection of those in power, it’s like a modern version of the wild west where the biggest baddest bully wins. The adversarial model is completely inadequate and inappropriate for child and 
family matters. Greed, politics and family matters are not compatible.