I'm happy to report that in Orange County we did have a Regional Counsel attorney attend shelter hearings, after being notified this morning to do so. I believe this is because courthouse staff has been proactive about trying to get information from the 5th Regional Counsel.
The Judge conducting shelter hearings today approved of my form (from the post below) and decided to use it. Thus a parent was spared from having to wait until later for counsel today.
I consider that a victory. Private (rotation or wheel) counsel will still get appointed when appropriate, though at a diminished rate than before, and parents will get lawyers at shelter, at least here in Orange County.
I've got no other reports except from Marion County, in which no Regional Counsel attorney showed up for shelter hearings (the Florida Bar News might want to rethink the headline "Regional Counsels Open for Business"). Reportedly the judge in Marion simply appointed private attorneys from the rotation list, which is risky in terms of those attorneys ever getting paid.
Either the Regional Counsel is going to perform its statutory duty or it is not. In Orange, it did; in Marion it did not. The offices are not "open for business" if they are not even appearing to represent dependency clients at shelter hearings.
How did it go in your county?
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3 comments:
I find it a little ironic to read this statement:
"Either the Regional Counsel is going to perform its statutory duty or it is not."
You recognize the "statutory duty" here but must also recognize that every possible hinderance is being put in place to stop these new offices from functioning. If getting office space is difficult because of the pending legal and political wrangling, I imagine staffing those offices must be next to impossible.
This is a bit like putting Icy Hot in the opposing team's jock straps and then marveling at bad they are at playing the game...
Funny when it's a harmless prank but not so funny when it affects real people trying to deal with real problems in a legal battle where nobody can win.
OK. I'm not sure I get your point. All I have done with this blog and the dependencydefense.com website, and my phone calls and emails and meetings is to try to encourage and help the regional counsels. I actually want to see this succeed, because I believe in having a competent counter to the power of DCF.
That said, if I interview for and go out of my way to get the job of providing legal representation for the indigent...and then sort of not show up to provide legal representation for the indigent on my third deadline to do so...am I doing a good job, or not doing a good job?
Is it the fault of this blogger if the RCs aren't even showing up to work?
The regional counsels wanted these gigs. What is at issue at the moment is whether or not they wanted to actually get the job done. That's not sniping; it's a legitimate subject for debate when it is demonstrably true that they have not gotten the job done.
It doesn't help my demeanor to know that every one of them refused to respond to offers of help from the authors of this website.
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