In a workshop at Thurday's Florida Dependency Summit, 3rd District Regional Counsel Joseph George offered some comments in the group discussion.
The leader/instructor asked him to explain his office, and in doing so he proclaimed that "there are no more private attorneys" defending parents in dependency court. Your blog author can tell you that rumors of his lack of existence are wildly exaggerated.
Mr. George also stated that "We (the Regional Counsel attorneys) are not just parents' attorneys; we are a DCF partner." He said that twice. I don't wish to make too much of that, in the context of the discussion one could hear that to mean that he seeks to reunify parents....just like DCF does. I guess. Personally, I think my clients don't want to hear that I'm a DCF partner. They want me to work to mediate solutions sometimes, yes. They more often want me to oppose and fight DCF, thus the whole "defense" in defense attorney thing. Partner with DCF? I don't think they want that. And really, had I sat for an interview to be the Regional Counsel, I wouldn't have thought that they'd want to hear that one of my goals in largely replacing the private defense bar would be to partner with the opposition. Seriously, have any elected Public Defenders ever gone to a convention of prosecutors and law enforcement and told them that the Public Defender is their partner?
Enough of that.
Lastly, and the most fun:
In a small room that contained 15th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Kathleen Kroll and Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, Mr. George referred to his attorneys handling dependency cases as "My girls -- I mean attorneys".
A low "ooooooh" was heard from many in the room.
Incidentally, one of the points in the discussion (it was about media relations) made by the instructor was that, essentially, privacy is an illusion in this age (I agree) and that, in fact, what went on in the workshop may well be on the web before the end of the day.
So there you go.
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3 comments:
No more private attorneys? Does George mean that he is violating Ethical rules by representing both parents in a dependency case? Did George say that he may be violating Ethical rules by asking his attorneys to handle an overworked caseload? This should be investigated immediately.
Of course, we will never know since it makes much more sense to rile you up with innuendo than to go an ask the guy that one is in the same room with at the time its said. But no blogger worth his salt is remotely interested in facts, especially if they may challenge a point of view held by the blogger.
Query: Do the ROC offices have access to expert witnesses? I believe the State does not pay for experts when ROC handles cases. Very interesting when the State pays for experts for DCF......
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