I'll try to get you an update from Ms. Jackson as well.
So here you go:
A complaint filed with the governor’s inspector general offers a damning glimpse of early efforts by the regional conflict counsel office based in West Palm Beach.
Attorney Nicole Hunt Jackson, who worked at the Stuart office for four months, sent the complaint claiming mismanagement and “a continuous pattern of managerial abuses” three weeks before she was fired.
I doubt you'll regret it if you read the whole thing.
I'll go ahead and post the text of the entire post tomorrow.
6 comments:
I just learned today that the legislature reduced the flat fee rate from $1000 to $800 for the first year of Dependency cases, effective July 1, 2008. This leads me to believe that more cuts are on the way. I don't think the legislature is going to be satisfied until the registry is non-existant. Which begs the question, "What would happen if all the registry attorneys across the State resigned?" Would the Judges resort to the "Involuntary List" as did the 12th Circuit? May not be a bad idea.
On another note, in my county the RCC has 1 part-time and 1 full-time attorney handling criminal conflicts. We have 6 felony judges in this county. Each judge averages about 100 felony conflict cases per year. The full-time attorney is working out of his/her house. Can you spell IMPLOSION?
May skills at looking through the bills that passed is lacking. Do you have a cite for the reduction to $800?
Dear Arrmatey, I don't have a cite. I received an email from our Court Administration notifying the registry attorneys of this fact effective July 1. One of the few remaining dependency attorneys after learning the news decided to resign that day. Obviously, the legislature puts our worth at a dime a dozen.
Dear Arrmatey, the cite that I have been provided that establishes the new rate of $800.00 is "Page 132 of the 2008-2009 Appropriations Act.
Our regional counsel started taking cases this week. The docket starts at 9am they showed up after 11:15. The judge had to call them. I heard one of their new clients tell them during the hearing that they had not seen their children in a month. Was this mentioned during the hearing?...NO. Am I impressed so far?....No.
We have three Dependency RCCs in our county. They are the proud owners of a docket that required 10 seasoned attorneys in the past. They began this journey in early May. They don't cover shelters on weekends. One attorney just passed the BAR. Another has only gotten enough courage so far to say her name on the record when representing a client during hearings. One attorney was informed by this writer that she was just appointed a TPR case that is set for trial in July. Her response " Somebody else will have to handle it because I don't do TPRs. The funny thing about this whole thing is that these same attorneys sat in Dependency Court for the entire month of April watching the seasoned attorneys practice law. Do trials and hearings. This was their introduction to being an RCC attorney. God help those families in our county.
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