When assessing quality legal representation, it is important to remember that both long- and short-term outcomes should be viewed in conjunction with each other and with other possible causes in mind. The presence of no single outcome should be taken as dispositive evidence of quality legal representation.

This data set reveals some positive outcomes for youth in this jurisdiction’s dependency court:

• Decrease in placement changes
• Decrease in re-entries into the child welfare system

The data also reveals some negative outcomes for youth in this jurisdiction’s dependency court:

• Increase in time to permanency (for reunification cases)

These data points should be assessed alongside each other and in conjunction with other data points to determine whether quality legal representation is present and is driving these outcomes.