The French law of March 5, 2007, on the protection of childhood gives priority to the administrative intervention requested by the General Council over the intervention of the civil court requested by the children’s judge. The idea is that these interventions are naturally complementary. However, they pertain to such different frameworks that the meaning of actions is modified de facto, for the public for which they are intended and the professionals tasked with implementing them. This paper tries to show how the legal framework remains appropriate regarding the protection of children or youngsters when they are involved in serious trouble within their family, as well as the assessment of these family problems.