Juvenile Court Hearing Officer - Juvenile Branch, Family Court

Working hours are 40 hours per week.  This is a full-time, in person position with the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania.

In order to apply and be considered for this position, please visit https://fjdcareers.phila.gov/Cyberweb/ to complete an application and upload a resume.

Position Summary

This is highly professional legal work serving in the capacity of a Juvenile Court Hearing Officer with the Juvenile Branch of Family Court.  The candidate selected will be assigned to hear Delinquency and/or Dependency and/or Truancy matters (offsite), as determined by the operational needs of the court on an ongoing basis.

This work is performed in a quasi-judicial setting and involves conducting delinquency, dependency, and truancy hearings. These hearings are held in accordance with the requirements of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, the Juvenile Act, the Rules of Juvenile Court Procedure for Dependency Matters and the Rules of Juvenile Court for Delinquency Matters.

In order to apply and be considered for this position, please visit https://fjdcareers.phila.gov/Cyberweb/ to complete an application and upload a resume.

Essential Functions

The following duties are normal for this position.  These are not to be construed as exclusive or all-inclusive, other duties may be required and assigned:

The following duties are normal for this position. They are not to be construed as exclusive or all-inclusive. Other duties may be assigned and required.

Dependency Court

• Conduct shelter care hearings to determine whether “to allow the child to remain in the home would be contrary to the welfare of the child;” whether “reasonable efforts were made to prevent or eliminate the need for removal of the child from the home” or not required “due to the emergency nature of the situation, safety considerations, and circumstances of the family.”
• Conducts  permanency hearings to determine or review the permanency plan of a child, to determine the date by which the goal of permanency for the child might be achieved, and to determine whether placement continues to be best suited to the safety, protection and physical, mental and moral welfare of the child. 
• Hold case management conferences for cases involving contested goal change/termination of parental rights and contested permanent legal custody.
• Issue case management orders setting forth deadlines relating to management of the case prior to the contested hearing.
• Conduct mandatory pre-trial conferences to determine compliance with the case management order and to establish the readiness of the case to proceed as scheduled.
• Conduct Truancy hearings at offsite Regional Court locations pursuant to the Education, Health, and Welfare section of the Juvenile Dependency Rules and other applicable law.

Delinquency Court

• Conduct detention hearings  

• Conduct review hearings of juveniles placed on  Recorded Consent Decrees (RCD), deferred adjudication and adjudicated delinquent to determine whether the youth’s community based programming and services or placement  continues to be consistent with the protection of the public interest and is best suited to the child’s treatment, supervision, rehabilitation, safety, protection and welfare.
•  Evaluate whether placement is necessary to provide balanced attention to the protection of the community, the imposition of accountability for offenses committed and the development of competencies to enable the child to become a responsible and productive member of the community.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:

Standard office conditions.

In order to apply and be considered for this position, please visit https://fjdcareers.phila.gov/Cyberweb/ to complete an application and upload a resume.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Thorough knowledge of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Rules of Civil Procedure governing actions for Delinquency and Dependency.
• Thorough knowledge of statutory and case law relating to Delinquent and Dependent cases.
• Thorough knowledge of the proper conduct of hearings held in accordance with Pennsylvania laws.
• Thorough knowledge of the preparation of legal documents and court orders.
• Ability to exercise judgment and discretion in applying law to factual situations and support recommendations made by appropriate legal authority.
• Ability to fairly and objectively rule on a multitude of cases that involve highly emotional issues.
• Ability to present ideas effectively, both orally and in writing.

In order to apply and be considered for this position, please visit https://fjdcareers.phila.gov/Cyberweb/ to complete an application and upload a resume.