Consider my jaw dropped

I've been sitting on this for days. Via an email sent to my tipster on October 12, we get a glimpse of the future, and an answer of sorts to the questions I've been trying to get answered about how at least one of the Regional Counsels will handle dependency defense.

The reason I've been sitting on it is because it is so completely unbelievable to me. I've no desire to pass on ridiculous and fantastic rumors that are not true, after all, but in the past several days I've come to the conclusion that the people who are the sources of this have no reason to make it up. It bears indicia of reliability, if you will.

It doesn't help matters, I might add, that none of the Regional Counsels have responded to my critical 3 questions sent to each by email (at least to the extent that I could find possible email addresses) and that Jackson Flyte is the only Regional Counsel willing to respond to any email at all from your friendly blog author. By that I mean that when I can't get information straight from the horse's mouth, I have to eventually rely on the information I can get through others.

In this case this information comes from one of the Regional Counsels, to a judge, to a county official, then to my tipster. So here it is:

In the county from which I get my information, the Regional Counsel will assign a total of four attorneys to cover dependency cases. Before I go on I should re-direct you to my Three Essential Questions post. Please read it, know that none of the Florida Regional / Conflict Counsels have responded to them, then come back here.

Welcome back. If you didn't hit the link and instead just kept reading, trust me, we know.

As I was saying, the county in question, which has an above-average volume of dependency cases compared to most Florida counties, will have four attorneys assigned to cover all of the cases. One will be a father's attorney before one of the judges, the other the mother's attorney, and the same thing before the other juvenile dependency judge. It does not appear that any will be assigned specifically to cover the magistrate's docket.

The built-in flaw in this plan created by the inherent conflict between mothers and fathers in most of these cases aside, as outlined in my Three Questions post, and the fact that the attorneys will have to be in two places at once quite often because of the magistrate's docket also aside, I have to tell you the following:

These attorneys will be paid $24,000 a year.

As I noted above, I sat on this for quite a while because it is simply so hard to believe. The angle is this, I believe, is this, from the point of view of the Regional Counsel: the $24,000 figure is quite reasonable, because the work is only part time, and with this part time work the attorney will get to earn this money, plus state benefits, but still be able to operate his or her private law practice (in any field except for court-appointed counsel for parents in dependency cases).

Here's the problem. These will not be part time jobs. They can't possibly be. I practice in the county in question, and I am one of, let's just say it is more than four, attorneys who literally do nothing but dependency defense in this county. I am typically in court every single business day, and typically from the start of the day's docket until the end of it. Getting lunch is a challenge at least a couple of days a week. Handling the dependency cases would be next to impossible if the bulk of my practice were in another courthouse. It is more than a full time endeavor, because outside of the time I spend in course I still have to write letters to clients, answer phone calls and emails, visit clients in jail, interview witnesses, negotiate with DCF attorneys, attend permanency staffings and case plan conferences, research law and draft motions, set up appointments for and conduct discovery, and so on.

Two of the four attorneys will have to, at a minimum, be available every single day for shelter hearings, and somehow have to make an on-the-spot decision about whether or not there is a conflict between the mother and the father without actually talking to either of them, which would of course cause the attorneys to have to withdraw from representation of both of them should otherwise confidential attorney-client discussions lead to the conclusion that there is (and there will be) a conflict.

The over-under on how many days it will take for each of the four attorneys who sign on for a part time job for 24k and discover that it is in fact a daunting and complex job requiring much more than 40 hours a week honest work given the caseload is three.

Regional Counsels, if my information is simply wrong; if my very reliable sources are all wet, then please let me know. Whatever information you'd like the readers of this blog to have, I'll pass on. Contact information is easily found at the Dependency Defense website.

On another note, I can tell you that some of the leadership among DCF lawyers locally is also worried about this whole thing. They do not want to see their cases bogged down and not move toward adjudication and permanency because of the lack of defense lawyer availability. I agree. Delay and lack of sufficient time to know the cases well is not good for any of the parties involved.