Critics Say Parents in Santa Clara, CA Dependency Court Have “Little Chance of Improved Representation,” as State Opts for Lowest-Bidding Firm
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Karen de Sá
Source: The Mercury News (CA)
Date: August 9, 2008
The Mercury News reports: "Despite documented problems in the handling of dependency court cases, state and local court officials have chosen the current lawyers to receive a new two-year contract to continue representing impoverished Santa Clara County parents and some children in foster care. The decision to award the multimillion-dollar contract to lawyers working at Santa Clara Juvenile Defenders came even as a rare audit of the firm's past contracts, still to be completed, has raised questions about spending and whether the firm has provided its clients with the level of services that it promised . . . . The contract - final details of which remain to be negotiated - provides for the firm to represent about 2,000 impoverished parents facing allegations of child abuse and neglect as well as roughly 300 youth . . . . Juvenile Defenders, like similar firms around the state, has often failed to prepare cases properly, has not hired investigators, experts, or social workers. Critics also say the firm has continually failed to protect the parents' right to appeal adverse rulings. Technically, the court is contracting with a newly formed non-profit, Dependency Advocacy Center, which is the same group of lawyers as the for-profit firm Juvenile Defenders. The founder of Juvenile Defenders committed suicide in March [2008] as questions about the firm were being raised. Last month, Michal Kresser, the director of a state agency that coordinates the appeals for indigent clients, wrote to court officials, urging them to reject the current lawyers, contending there was ‘little chance of improved representation if the management team was let in place.' The poor representation, he said, causes children to be ‘needlessly removed' from their homes."
This is a follow-up on a story published in last week's E-lert.