![[Top]](/images/nav-top.gif)
![[Back]](/images/nav-back.gif)
![[Home]](/images/nav-home.gif)
April 23, 2004
Hathaway Building Auditorium
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Representative Colin Simpson, Chairman
Senator Keith Goodenough
Representatives Ed Buchanan, Jack Landon and Monte Olsen
John Rivera, Senior Staff Attorney
Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
Senator John Hanes
All meeting materials and handouts provided to the Committee by the Legislative Service Office (LSO), public officials, lobbyists, and the public are referenced in the Meeting Materials Index, attached to the minutes. These materials are on file at the LSO and are part of the official record of the meeting.
Chairman Simpson called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic. Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.
Ms. Donna Sheen, Department of Family Services, provided a PowerPoint presentation (Appendix 3), including case law defining issues affecting representation of children and prior efforts by various committees to address those issues. Thus far, only the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys has been modified by the Wyoming Supreme Court to clarify the roles and duties of guardians ad litem (GALs).
Colorado Office of Child's Representative
Mr. Kent Spangler, Deputy Director, distributed Appendix 4, consisting of the report of the Office of Child's Representative (OCR) to the Colorado General Assembly and a description of the OCR for Wyoming legislators at this meeting. He explained the functions of the OCR which include training, accountability, specialization and compensation for attorneys representing children through the OCR to ensure uniform and adequate representation is available throughout the state. The goal of the OCR with respect to attorney compensation is to be uniform and comparable to other public sector attorneys in the state. The OCR does not supervise or monitor appointments of court-appointed special advocates who may be appointed in individual cases by the court.
Mr. Spangler advised he believes the American Bar Association recommends a limit of not more than seventy cases per attorney, but the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center attempts to limit its caseloads to thirty clients per attorney.
Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center
Ms. Shari Shink, Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, distributed Appendix 5 to Subcommittee members, describing the program she founded 27 years ago and its goals. Fifty percent of abuse or neglected children don't graduate from high school at a cost of one million dollars per child, including out-of-pocket expenses and lost opportunities and benefits. While society is willing to pay large amounts of money to defend adults accused of crimes, it balks at spending significantly less for the legal representation of abused and neglected children. Ms. Shink believes this approach is penny-wise and pound foolish.
She advised any office created to provide legal representation of children has to be independent to establish appropriate caseloads and expectations of outcomes, as well as needing a stable funding source and authority to raise additional funding through its own efforts.
Public Comment
Ms. Ann Rochelle, Casper attorney, advised that the issues the Subcommittee should study are broader than GALs. The problem is systemic, so the roles of judges, parents' attorneys, the Department of Family Services and others should also be examined. The problems can't be easily analyzed because juvenile proceedings are confidential. DFS spends too much money and effort attempting to terminate parental rights when it should be spending the money up front to avoid those drastic and expensive proceedings later. Additionally, any actions taken by the Legislature regarding GALs for juveniles affects other areas, e.g., GALs for the elderly. The solutions she proposed include the state, rather than counties, assuming responsibilities for compensation, oversight and defining the duties of GALs.
Honorable Ed Grant, First Judicial District Court Judge, stated the problem was created by the Legislature when it established an adversarial legal process, rather than creating an administrative process to deal with problems of abuse and neglect of children. As a legal process, the Wyoming Rules of Evidence apply, requiring an attorney when a GAL is appointed. A lay advocate may have a role to play, but not as a GAL. Since the lay advocate is generally not an expert, the advocate's opinion and testimony are of limited value because the advocate cannot testify as to hearsay. Judge Grant believes funding of GALs by the county is appropriate, but the Legislature could establish a mechanism to provide additional funding, where necessary. Standards should be set by the Wyoming Supreme Court. Training is already available. It only needs to be made more accessible. Most children he sees in court get good representation, but there are rare exceptions when that doesn't happen.
Honorable Gary Hartman, Fifth Judicial District Court Judge, added that training and standards are necessary for adequate representation of children. Just as the Public Defender's Office monitors the competency of public defenders, similar oversight of GALs is necessary. Someone needs to address deficiencies in the abilities of a GAL before problems escalate to the point that the Wyoming State Bar gets involved.
Mr. Spangler added that another function of the Colorado OCR is to ensure the competency of the representation provided by its GALs to go beyond merely meeting ethical obligations.
Mr. Ken Koski, Wyoming Public Defender, explained his office would have inherent conflicts representing parents in abuse and neglect cases and also acting as GAL for the child. His office could provide representation in Child in Need of Supervision (CHINS) cases without conflicts. In 2002, there were 252 CHINS cases. Based on that figure, his office could represent children in CHINS cases with two additional full-time equivalent positions. As a member of the Select Committee on Juveniles last interim, he conducted a survey of the 23 counties to determine the level of compensation paid to GALs. Only Park and Campbell Counties paid well, other counties did not. He is also concerned that many juveniles placed at the Boys' School did not have legal representation. Adults would not be similarly institutionalized without access to legal representation.
Chairman Simpson suggested that the potential conflicts in the Public Defender's Office Mr. Koski described could be addressed by creating a separate Division of Children's Representative.
Mr. Jerry Parkinson, Dean of the University of Wyoming College of Law, stated he had served as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) for seven years and believes CASA volunteers provide valuable assistance to the courts and children. He suggested that the University Law School could provide GAL services under the supervision of an attorney, just as it provides representation in other clinical programs at the Law School. Law students, because of their idealism could provide better representation than an underpaid attorney might.
Subcommittee Discussion
Chairman Simpson asked staff to survey counties to determine what counties are now spending on juvenile actions, broken down by type of case, i.e., delinquency, CHINS or abuse and neglect, to the extent such information is available. Additionally, if it is possible the data should reflect how that money is being spent at various levels, e.g., before and after termination, etc. and what the Department of Family Services and the Attorney General's Office are spending on juvenile cases. Current number of cases pending throughout the state should be sought also. He requested Mr. Dan Wilde to provide a summary of what the Attorney General's Office is doing in the area of termination of parental rights. Mr. Rivera was requested to find out what county attorneys may be doing with respect to termination of parental rights.
Representative Landon asked for background as to the duties and obligations of GALs. Ms. Tara Ackerman, Court Improvement Project, and Ms. Sheen advised they could put together summary information on the standards and duties of GALs.
Chairman Simpson asked Mr. Spangler to provide a copy of the standards that attorneys must meet to qualify as GALs in Colorado. He also requested Richard Bohling, Albany County Attorney, consult with the Wyoming County Attorneys Association to develop a two page letter describing the problems they are seeing with GALs in terms of identifying and getting them appointed in individual cases.
Senator Goodenough raised the issue of creating a list serve to keep interested parties apprised of Committee or Subcommittee actions and deliberations. After discussion, it was agreed that efforts would be made to identify parties to be added to the email list that was being compiled at this meeting. Information that can be distributed publicly through electronic media shall be made available to persons on the email list.
Chairman Simpson advised that the Subcommittee will not meet until after the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee meets on June 28 and 29, 2004. If the full Committee decides on a course of action that does not require the Subcommittee to meet again, this may be the last meeting of the Subcommittee. He thanked participants for their attendance and comments at the meeting.
There being no further business, Chairman Simpson adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m..
Respectfully submitted,
Representative Colin Simpson, Chairman