It is time to organize

..or, why we fight, part 2...

I have from time to time blogged about specific cases I've had in order to illustrate the great good that competent dependency defense lawyers can do, not just for individual clients, but children, families, and for society, not to mention the state budget that feeds the enormous foster care machine.

I have posted some questions to which I'm still awaiting answers in "why we fight" (part 1).

As private defense attorneys, we deal with difficult clients, many of whom are mentally ill. The last hour I just spent returning email can attest to that. All for a whopping $1000 per case. As private defense attorneys, we've accumulated the experience and relationships with judges, DCF counsel and case managers, etc., that allow us from time to time change the dynamics of what happens when a case becomes entrenched in the system and, if I may be so bold, pull off miracles. Two Fridays ago I was dreading a judicial review hearing. The case was going on two years old. The client didn't follow my advice very well and was difficult to deal with. There was trouble with ICPC missteps and false starts in two states with the parents trying to satisfy the government with their case plan efforts, and we were on our fourth case worker not doing much to create options other than an eventual inevitable TPR.

I dreaded the judicial review hearing. More sadness over seeing a family that had been well and truly torn apart. More punting the ball down the field for a future hearing. Then I had an epiphany and perhaps an original thought. Five lawyers had been involved in the case for almost two years. Five minutes of argument after I had my new thought and suddenly the family was reunified, and supervision and jurisdiction terminated. Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars saved. A family saved. It's hard to explain. A totality of experience in dependency court focused and came to a point of determination. A few minutes of talking, the judge's head cocks, eyebrows raise, a statute book is opened, the air in the room suddenly feels different, clients and extended family begin to cry with pent-up hope, and then...the ruling.

It's over. It's all o.k. now. The child has parents again.

That's not to say that employees of the Regional Counsels cannot or will not be capable of spectacular results in court. I hope and imagine that several of them will accomplish that.

It is to say that simple math tells us that the most experienced of Florida's dependency defenders are unlikely to accept $40,000 per year jobs and give up the joys of running their own practices to become employees of the Regional Counsels, and that is a lot of talent lost if they can no longer make a living doing this work.

This post is becoming long and a bit rambling, so let me take you to my point: we dependency defenders need to form an organization. We need a "Florida Association of Dependency Defense Lawyers" (FADDL), and we need to help our legislature make some relatively minor and common sense changes to the new RC law. First on the list of changes would be to allow the RCs to contract with (instead of making them employees) individuals or firms who are willing to negotiate a fair and proper fee for covering dependency defense in a county, circuit, or region. That is a key thing that is missing from the law as it is now written.

Look, the Supreme Court is going to uphold the RC law. I don't like predictions, but I'd be shocked if I'm wrong about that. We as private defense counsel need to figure out how to not only survive in the new environment, but also how to thrive and to significantly contribute to the solutions.

I envision a series of very professional "Family Preservation Legal Services" law firms who can contract with the RCs and do more with less and allow experienced defense attorneys to do what they love full time without having to become state employees.

Are you with me? The first step is to create the FADDL. I'm in, and can think of a few people who would like to pursue it as well.

Incidentally, I can tell you that a recent lunch meeting overheard at Macaroni Grill suggests that there are people thinking along the same lines.