The concept of an Office of Regional Counsel, in the abstract, is not a bad one," Judge Haworth states in an essay to be published by the Sarasota County Bar Association. But -- isn't there always a but in Florida? -- "the problem lies in the fact that, from the outset, ORC will be critically underfunded and understaffed."
And, Haworth states, the state's mandatory fee contract is so "onerous" that few private-sector attorneys will volunteer to take time-consuming cases, fearing that they will essentially "have to work for free."
Haworth and several lawyers with whom I spoke agreed that many Floridians are unlikely to sympathize with the plight of indigent defendants accused of crimes.
Inadequate representation affects victims of crimes, too, by delaying trials and, ultimately, justice.
"But what I'm really concerned about is dependency cases," Haworth said. "If lawyers won't take appointments or can't be available for all the hearings, we're going to be delaying reunifications \[between children placed into foster care and their parents\] or adoptions of foster children."
Lee Johnson of the Sarasota Family YMCA, which is involved in foster care and adoption cases throughout our region, said his agency is concerned as well, "especially in the short-term."
Public Defender Elliott Metcalfe agreed: "The impacts on the criminal system will be bad enough; the effects on family courts will be worse."
I bolded a portion of that because it is worth noting. First, because it seems to be far too easy for policy makers to forget that such delays (especially unnecessary time in foster care) costs a lot of money. It is a fact that the clients we dependency defense attorneys represent are often unsympathetic characters, but it is still true that we are professionals, and officers of the court, and perform a vital service in the progress of these cases. On the other hand, some of our clients truly are the victims of injustice.
As I said recently to a CWLS (DCF attorney) friend, it comes down to this: no matter how much protective investigators, social workers, case manager supervisors, DCF attorneys, etc., might be decent people, it is in the interest of no one to endow an agency, operating with all the power and weight of the State of Florida, the ability to operate with no outside checks and no competent and experienced attorneys to present the other side of the story. Unchecked and enormous power simply isn't healthy, even for those people who intend to use it for good.
CWLS needs competent and experienced dependency defense counsel to keep them honest, if you will, and we need each other to keep us all sharp and on our game. The courts need all of us to give them the confidence that they have all the relevant facts.
I invite you to read the entire article.
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