ORANGE COUNTY, CA / ACCESS Newswire / August 21, 2026 / Mohammad “Mo” Abuershaid, founding partner of ALL Trial Lawyers, has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America, a peer reviewed recognition for attorneys earlier in their careers who have demonstrated professional excellence in private practice.

Abuershaid is a California attorney whose practice focuses substantially on juvenile dependency proceedings, Child Protective Services investigations, parental rights, and cases arising under California Welfare and Institutions Code section 300. Through ALL Trial Lawyers, he represents parents, guardians, relatives, and caregivers facing child welfare proceedings throughout Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

The recognition reflects Abuershaid’s development of a practice concentrated in an area where the consequences can be immediate and profound. A CPS investigation may lead to the emergency removal of a child, a detention hearing within days, court ordered services, restrictions on parental visitation, or proceedings that can ultimately place parental rights at risk.

For families confronting that system, the attorney handling the case must understand not only California dependency law, but also the procedures, agencies, courtrooms, and practices that differ from county to county.

A Practice Focused on California Juvenile Dependency and CPS Defense

Abuershaid has been admitted to practice law in California since 2014 and is registered with the State Bar of California as Attorney No. 297270. He earned his Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

Before founding ALL Trial Lawyers, Abuershaid served as a Deputy Public Defender with the Orange County Public Defender’s Office. His work as a public defender provided substantial courtroom experience and helped shape the trial focused approach he now brings to juvenile dependency litigation.

Abuershaid has personally handled more than 2,000 juvenile dependency matters. ALL Trial Lawyers reports that its attorneys collectively have more than 50 years of legal experience and have handled more than 10,000 matters.

The firm also provides services in English, Spanish, and Arabic, allowing families from diverse Southern California communities to communicate about complicated and highly personal legal issues in a language they understand.

Why Experience Matters in a California CPS Case

Juvenile dependency cases move quickly.

When a county child welfare agency removes a child from a parent or guardian, the initial court proceedings may begin within a matter of days. Critical decisions about placement, visitation, services, evidentiary strategy, and how a parent communicates with social workers may arise before a family fully understands what allegations are being made.

An attorney experienced in dependency court can help a parent understand what is happening from the beginning of the investigation through the conclusion of the case.

Abuershaid’s practice includes representation involving investigations by the major child welfare agencies serving Southern California, including:

  • Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, commonly known as DCFS

  • Orange County Social Services Agency, commonly known as SSA

  • San Diego County Child Welfare Services, commonly known as CWS

  • Riverside County Department of Public Social Services

  • San Bernardino County Children and Family Services

Although California dependency proceedings are governed by statewide law, the administration of child welfare cases is local. Procedures, personnel, filing practices, courthouse practices, and agency protocols can differ significantly across counties.

ALL Trial Lawyers has developed county specific resources for families seeking information about CPS and dependency proceedings throughout Southern California.

Los Angeles County CPS and DCFS Defense

In Los Angeles County, Abuershaid represents parents and caregivers involved in investigations and juvenile dependency proceedings initiated by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Families can learn more about the firm’s Los Angeles County practice through its dedicated resource for a Los Angeles CPS and DCFS defense attorney.

The Los Angeles practice serves families throughout the county, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Torrance, Lancaster, Palmdale, and surrounding communities.

Los Angeles County dependency cases may involve emergency detention, contested allegations under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, disputes concerning placement and visitation, reunification services, review hearings, and proceedings involving the possible termination of parental rights.

Orange County CPS and Juvenile Dependency Defense

Abuershaid also represents families facing investigations by the Orange County Social Services Agency and proceedings in Orange County juvenile dependency court.

Information about the firm’s Orange County practice is available through its Orange County CPS lawyer resource.

The firm represents families throughout Orange County, including Orange, Irvine, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and neighboring communities.

Abuershaid’s prior service as a Deputy Public Defender in Orange County also provides professional familiarity with the county’s legal system and courtroom environment.

San Diego County CPS and CWS Defense

In San Diego County, ALL Trial Lawyers represents parents, guardians, relatives, and caregivers involved in Child Welfare Services investigations and juvenile dependency proceedings.

Families can learn more through the firm’s dedicated San Diego CPS lawyer resource.

The San Diego practice serves communities including La Jolla, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido, El Cajon, Carlsbad, Vista, and surrounding areas.

The firm represents clients in matters that may proceed through the San Diego County juvenile dependency court system, including proceedings heard at the Meadow Lark Drive courthouse.

Riverside County CPS and DPSS Defense

ALL Trial Lawyers also represents families involved in Riverside County child welfare investigations and dependency cases.

The firm provides county specific information through its Riverside CPS lawyer resource.

The Riverside County practice serves communities including Riverside, Moreno Valley, Corona, Murrieta, Temecula, Hemet, Menifee, Perris, Indio, Palm Springs, and surrounding areas.

Riverside County dependency matters may involve investigations through the county’s Department of Public Social Services, emergency removal proceedings, contested jurisdiction hearings, disposition, family reunification services, placement disputes, review hearings, and permanency proceedings.

San Bernardino County CPS and CFS Defense

In San Bernardino County, Abuershaid and ALL Trial Lawyers represent families facing investigations by Children and Family Services and proceedings in juvenile dependency court.

Additional information is available through the firm’s San Bernardino CPS lawyer resource.

The firm serves families throughout San Bernardino County, including Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Rialto, Victorville, Hesperia, Chino, Redlands, Upland, and surrounding communities.

Representation From the CPS Investigation Through Trial and Appeal

Abuershaid’s dependency practice encompasses the major stages of a California juvenile dependency case.

Representation may include:

  • Counseling parents during an initial CPS, DCFS, SSA, CWS, DPSS, or CFS investigation

  • Advising parents before interviews with social workers

  • Responding to proposed safety plans

  • Preparing for emergency removal proceedings

  • Representation at detention hearings

  • Challenging allegations contained in a Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 petition

  • Jurisdiction hearings

  • Disposition hearings

  • Contested dependency trials

  • Review hearings

  • Reunification services disputes

  • Visitation litigation

  • Placement disputes involving relatives and extended family members

  • Permanency planning proceedings

  • Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26 hearings

  • Proceedings concerning the termination of parental rights

  • Juvenile dependency appeals

The firm also represents parents facing allegations involving physical abuse, neglect, failure to protect, emotional harm, substance use, domestic violence, positive newborn toxicology results, and other allegations that may form the basis of a dependency petition.

Dependency Cases Involving Medical Evidence

Some of the most complicated juvenile dependency matters involve medical allegations.

A child may arrive at a hospital with a fracture, head injury, bruising, unexplained symptoms, or another medical condition. Physicians, mandated reporters, social workers, or law enforcement investigators may then raise concerns about possible abuse or neglect.

Those cases can depend heavily on the interpretation of medical records, imaging, laboratory findings, timelines, expert opinions, and competing explanations for an injury or condition.

ALL Trial Lawyers handles dependency matters involving disputed medical evidence, including cases in which parents contend that an injury, symptom, or medical presentation has been misunderstood or incorrectly attributed to abuse.

These cases may require careful examination of the underlying medical evidence rather than simply accepting an agency’s initial characterization of what occurred.

False Allegations and Disputed CPS Reports

Child welfare allegations can also arise during contentious custody disputes, family conflicts, reports by mandated reporters, or allegations made by third parties.

An allegation does not become true merely because it appears in a social worker’s report.

Dependency counsel may need to examine witness credibility, prior inconsistent statements, text messages, photographs, medical records, law enforcement reports, custody history, and other evidence to determine whether the county can actually prove the allegations contained in its petition.

For parents facing disputed allegations, the consequences can extend beyond dependency court. Findings may affect custody proceedings, employment, professional licensing, immigration matters, future child welfare investigations, and criminal cases.

For that reason, some clients may have objectives beyond obtaining the fastest possible resolution. They may need allegations challenged on the merits or preserved for appellate review.

Coordinating Dependency and Criminal Defense

A particularly important part of Abuershaid’s practice involves cases in which the same allegation results in both a juvenile dependency investigation and potential criminal exposure.

Statements made to social workers, law enforcement officers, medical personnel, evaluators, or other participants in a dependency case may create consequences outside juvenile court.

A parent may therefore face competing pressures. Cooperation requested in the dependency proceeding may affect the criminal investigation, while decisions in the criminal case may affect reunification efforts in juvenile court.

ALL Trial Lawyers maintains both juvenile dependency and criminal defense capabilities, allowing the firm to evaluate how decisions in one proceeding may affect another.

That coordinated approach can be particularly important in cases involving allegations of physical abuse, child endangerment, domestic violence, sexual abuse, controlled substances, or serious injury.

What Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® Recognition Represents

Best Lawyers uses a peer review methodology in evaluating attorneys for its recognitions.

That distinction is particularly meaningful in litigation focused practices because professional reputation is developed through repeated interactions with other attorneys and participants in the justice system.

For Abuershaid, the recognition accompanies a practice built through years of courtroom advocacy and a substantial concentration in juvenile dependency matters.

Dependency attorneys regularly appear before judges, county counsel, minors’ counsel, social workers, and other professionals who work within the same court systems. Over time, preparation, accuracy, professionalism, and courtroom performance contribute to an attorney’s professional reputation.

The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America recognition adds to Abuershaid’s growing professional profile as ALL Trial Lawyers continues expanding its dependency practice throughout Southern California.

A Client Centered Approach to Juvenile Dependency Cases

For many parents, a CPS investigation is their first interaction with juvenile dependency court.

The terminology alone can be overwhelming.

Parents may suddenly be asked to understand detention, jurisdiction, disposition, case plans, monitored visitation, reunification services, placement preferences, review hearings, permanency planning, and statutory deadlines while simultaneously coping with the possibility that their child may remain outside the home.

Abuershaid emphasizes communication with clients throughout that process.

The goal is to ensure that families understand the allegations, the procedural posture of the case, the available options, the potential consequences of important decisions, and the realistic paths toward reunification or another desired outcome.

The firm does not approach every dependency matter with the same strategy.

For one parent, the principal goal may be securing the earliest possible return of a child.

For another, the central issue may be disproving an allegation that could affect a professional license or employment.

Another client may be dealing simultaneously with a criminal investigation, family court proceeding, or immigration concern.

Others may need to challenge an adverse juvenile court ruling through appellate proceedings.

The appropriate strategy depends on the allegations, evidence, procedural posture, applicable law, and the client’s objectives.

Expanding Juvenile Dependency Representation Across Southern California

Following the Best Lawyers recognition, Abuershaid continues to focus on expanding ALL Trial Lawyers’ juvenile dependency and CPS defense capabilities throughout Southern California.

That effort includes continued work in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, along with an emphasis on cases involving disputed medical evidence, false allegations, complex evidentiary issues, parallel criminal proceedings, and appellate advocacy.

The principles behind the practice remain straightforward: understand the client’s objectives, investigate the evidence, know the applicable law, understand the local court system, prepare thoroughly, communicate clearly, and be prepared to litigate when necessary.

Parents, guardians, relatives, and caregivers facing a CPS, DCFS, SSA, CWS, DPSS, or CFS investigation in Southern California can contact ALL Trial Lawyers for a confidential consultation.

About Mohammad Abuershaid

Mohammad “Mo” Abuershaid is the founding partner of ALL Trial Lawyers and a California attorney whose practice includes juvenile dependency, CPS defense, and related litigation.

He has practiced law in California since 2014 and previously served as a Deputy Public Defender with the Orange County Public Defender’s Office.

Abuershaid has personally handled more than 2,000 juvenile dependency matters and represents parents and families in child welfare proceedings throughout Southern California.

About ALL Trial Lawyers

ALL Trial Lawyers is a Southern California trial law firm with a substantial practice focused on juvenile dependency and CPS defense, along with related criminal defense and family law representation.

The firm reports more than 50 years of combined attorney experience, and more than 10,000 matters handled.

ALL Trial Lawyers represents clients throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County. Legal services are available in English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Media Contact

ALL Trial Lawyers

Phone: (866) 811- 4255
Email: info@alltriallawyers.com
Website: alltriallawyers.com

SOURCE: ALL Trial Lawyers

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