Budget Shortfall Prompted Minnesota Public Defenders to Discontinue Representing Parents in Child Protection Cases, Shifting the Responsibility and the Cost to Counties
Legal Services E-lert
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Author: Paul Levy
Source: Star Tribune (MN)
Date: October 15, 2008
The Star Tribune reports: "Juvenile court cases involving Child in Need of Protection petitions [CHIPS] can be excruciating for children and parents. Now, they're proving costly to counties, thanks to the budget shortfall that has the state's courts scrambling. The estimated 1,200 hearings a year involving [CHIPS] petitions in Anoka County will cost the county an estimated $160,000 to $180,000 -- money that was not previously budgeted . . . . The money would be used to provide legal representation for parents -- a service that will replace the public defenders who represented parents in CHIPS petitions before the state's public defenders office stopped doing so this summer. Minnesota law provides that a parent going through the juvenile court on a CHIPS petition has the right to an attorney. If the parent can't afford a lawyer, the court appoints one. The State Board of Public Defense, battered by a $3.8 million budget shortfall, decided in June [2008] that counties should pay for lawyers for poor adults who are losing parental rights or are otherwise involved in cases in which children need help, often known as CHIPS cases . . . . [Anoka County's Homan Services Division manager, Jerry] Soma said he has heard that one rural county in the northern part of the state may refuse to provide public assistance to parents involved with CHIPS petitions, regardless of the law."