Mark D. Freeman, Esq. is a private attorney who represents parents and caretakers in family and criminal court who have been falsely accused of child abuse. Mark Freeman has represented dozens of falsely accused innocent parents and caregivers where he is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and has represented falsely accused innocent parents and caregivers in Canada and pro hac vice in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida. Mark Freeman has filed civil rights lawsuits and collected monetary judgments against five different Pennsylvania county child protection agencies for violating the Constitutional due process rights of parents. Mark Freeman’s lawsuits were specifically cited by Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare as the precipitating reason it changed its policy regarding safety plans in 2014 to require a due process hearing within 72 hours anytime a safety plan was implemented that altered a parent’s right to the custody of their children. Mark Freeman continues to diligently represent falsely accused innocent parents and caretakers and to vindicate the constitutional rights of all parents to procedural and substantive due process, particularly in the context of allegations of abuse that are used to deprive or alter the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their children.
Mark Freeman's entry into the shaken baby world came when the child of a close personal friend was taken to the hospital due to seizure activity and vomiting. Mark Freeman's friend was arrested and charged with assault and child endangerment. Fortunately, the two month old child survived. His friend had a very experienced criminal lawyer represent him, but Mark Freeman offered to help. It quickly became apparent that even an experienced criminal attorney had little idea how to defend an alleged child abuse case. Mark Freeman spent thousands of hours researching, reading medical journal articles, going to conferences and talking to doctors from around the country. Within a few months Mark Freeman was able to figure out what really happened to his friend's son and successfully defended the dependency proceeding where the county child protective services was trying to wrongfully take the child away.
After learning how legal and child protective services agencies adopt the medical presumption of abuse as a result of the dogma of shaken baby syndrome, Mark Freeman began to represent those who were victimized by this false medical hypothesis. It is tragic when young children experience these symptoms that some doctor's claim to have been caused by child abuse without evidence. The parents have done nothing to hurt their baby and are blindsided by allegations of abuse when they are simply trying to do what's best for their child. It is even more tragic when innocent parents and caregivers are charged criminally and/or have their children taken away from them. As an attorney, Mark Freeman considers it the highest professional calling to represent those who have been falsely accused and works vigorously to return children to their innocent parents while successfully defending false charges of abuse.