How we will keep parents represented January 2

I've noticed a spike in readership as the day (tomorrow) that the Regional Counsels take over dependency defense, despite no new posts here for a while.

Relax, we have a plan.

Here are two scenarios for January 2d, 2008, and days to follow.

1. An attorney from your Regional Counsel Office is present in court to attend shelter hearings. That would be a good thing. I also don't expect it to happen, based upon what I hear. It would be great if readers could comment here, on the message board, or send me email to let us know if that happened in your county.

That attorney will represent one parent per case. Since Chapter 39 requires that parents have representation at all hearings, including shelter, there must be a mechanism for the Regional Counsel attorney to quickly and efficiently certify a conflict to the Clerk of Court so that private counsel can be appointed before or at the shelter hearing.

I know that locally there is no plan or mechanism to do that yet, and that is likely to be the case throughout the state, which will result in a whole lot of people being denied the right to counsel.

All that may be needed is to have the right form on hand, and DependencyDefense.com has stepped up and made one for you.

This link is a pdf version if you just want to review it.
This link is a MSWord file if you want to modify it for your circuit and use it.

And I do invite you to use it.


Scenario 2: No attorney from your Regional Counsel Office shows up at shelter hearings. This is a certainty in at least several counties. It violates both Chapter 39 and Chapter 27. Hopefully you have thought ahead and there will be rotation (wheel) attorneys on hand tomorrow and in the coming days at shelter hearings.

Chapter 27 still allows your Judge, on his or her own motion, to find a conflict and appoint counsel. We have created a form for that as well for you to use if you'd like and haven't come up with something better (if you have, feel free to share).

This link is to the pdf version
This link is to the MSWord file version that you can modify.


Scenario2a: What I can't plan for is what to do about the situation where the RC attorney doesn't show, the Judge certifies a conflict and gives all but one parent counsel. The best we may be able to do in the short term is to request a continuance (The statute allows for one in this instance up to 72 hours) and make noise to the Regional Counsel.

If they still don't have anyone prepared to represent that parent, the only thing that comes to mind so far is a writ of mandamus.

Note 1: Hey, you say, what's the fuss if the whole RC thing was declared unconstitutional? Answer: 1) the order was stayed; 2) we don't know what the end result will be yet; and 3) the order may not ever apply to dependency cases, although setting up this whole system just for that will give the legislature fits.

Note 2: You're welcome. Feel free to leave comments.