Well, remember, folks, that when young'uns come on here and ask about emancipation, we always tell them that if they really believe they are being abused, they need to call CPS or report it to someone. I have also noticed that in the last few years, the level of abuse that teenagers think is intolerable has really dropped down to "verbal and emotional" instead of real physical abuse. The inevitable outcome of this is that CPS gets more and more abuse complaints, some of which are valid (heaven knows, VERY valid) and then there are those where "my dad refused to pay for my cell phone anymore" and "one time he sorta shoved me when I was trying to leave and he said I couldn't go." They are obligated to investigate. Three or four weeks isn't a whole lot of time, given their case loads and such. But I am in total agreement, at this point, the parents need a good attorney, and some way or another, if this complaint comes to nothing, which it likely will, the teenager's finances should be the ones that suffer to pay for that attorney. That should be a good lesson. Ending up in juvie is a possible negative outcome for the teen that they probably would not like unless the abuse was genuine and over the top. But I am seeing this happen more and more as I said, as the definition of parental abuse gets altered slightly by our society.