Task force urges changes to address ‘crisis’ in Michigan’s child welfare courts

A task force convened to address what critics call a crisis in Michigan’s system for providing attorneys in child protection proceedings has recommended sweeping reforms, including statewide attorney fee standards, training requirements and caseload limits.

The Child Protective Legal Representation Task Force was convened in 2023 to help overhaul the part of the legal system that can lead to family separation and the placement of youth in foster care.

The most important of his recommendations, set out in a report Released Tuesday is the creation of a statewide legal representation office for parents and children to bring uniformity to the current county-by-county system, under which an attorney who provides adequate representation in an urban area can earn as little as the minimum wage, according to a release. the report.

“Michigan’s current system … provided vastly different levels of legal assistance to the parties in this proceeding depending on where you were in the state and that clearly resulted in disparate treatment,” said Superior Court Judge Megan Cavanagh Michigan, on the report’s findings. “So unfortunately the reality is that courts across Michigan have been struggling for years to find and retain court-appointed attorneys for this important work.”

No timeline for the potential implementation of the changes was given during a Tuesday news conference attended by state lawmakers.

The task force, put together by Cavanagh and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Bolden, included judges, attorneys representing children and parents, court administrators and lawmakers.

The work follows that of similar stakeholder groups who have paved the way for legislative reforms in Michigan’s adult and juvenile delinquency systems over the past decade, where disparities across counties have also been identified.

Tuesday’s report shows trends in inadequate attorney compensation and training requirements.

In an unnamed county described as large and urban, pay scales in the youth protection system have remained unchanged since 1985, and a lawyer can earn as little as $100 per hearing. In that province, those “providing quality representation would barely earn the minimum wage,” the report said.

Meanwhile, three-quarters of counties surveyed do not require attorneys to receive any training before accepting an initial case appointment. That means that “in most Michigan counties, someone with little or no experience with child welfare law can graduate from law school and get on a court-appointed list to represent children or parents in perhaps the most life-changing legal intervention that you can think of. ,” the report said.

Additional recommendations from the task force include:

• providing access to expert witnesses, social workers and other support services for parent attorneys and legal guardians ad litem (L-GALs) representing children;

• creating an attorney application and appointment process;

• Continuous assessment of attorneys’ performance for eligibility to remain on the appointment lists

Tuesday’s recommendations are “an important first step in addressing what has been a crisis in our state for so many years,” said Vivek Sankaran, director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. “We are trying to strike a critical balance between protecting children and keeping them safe, but also ensuring that children are not unnecessarily separated from their families and are returned home quickly when it is safe to do so, and… that requires… expert guidance from lawyers.”

Sankaran touted potential cost savings for the state if the recommendations became law, saying Colorado, Arkansas and Washington all saw a reduction in investments in foster care after establishing statewide representation standards.

The report on child protection proceedings comes 15 years after a study conducted by the American Bar Association on behalf of the State Court Administrative Office identified the need for a statewide system.

“Michigan places the burden of financing (legal) representation on its counties, without structural support from the state,” said the study, completed in 2009. “As a result, compensation … in child protection cases varies from state to state. ”

When asked about funding and legislative support, Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit) said she was confident that “if we’re dealing with our kids, we’ll find a way to fund it.”

“We fund what’s important… and keeping families together and children safe is at the top of the list,” Young said. “So that will be a process?

“We understand the credit process, but this is a priority.”

Separate recommendations from a task force that met in 2021 to help overhaul the state’s juvenile delinquency system resulted in the passage of 19 bills last year. However, a major final bill that would allow the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission to create, implement and enforce statewide standards for the delivery of youth protection services has stalled in the Senate over its funding.

Contact Violet Ikonomova: [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Task force works to address ‘crisis’ in Michigan’s child welfare courts