Dear Virginia child dependency practitioners:

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Update: Legislative advocacy for improvements in parent legal representation

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THANK YOU! to all who contacted your legislators to advocate for changing the court-appointed fee for parents' counsel in child dependency proceedings (currently, capped on SCOVA's Chart of Allowances at the $120 misdemeanor fee level. The request was to instead, cap at the $445 fee for a class III/IV felony that resolves at the district court level).?

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Bad news first: no increase

Unfortunately, I am sorry to report that the Senate Finance Committee did not adopt Senator Edwards' budget amendment ($11m above current allocation, with $3m federal offset, $8m net increase).

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During the Senate Finance Committee (SFAC) discussion, they declined to raise these fees (or those for court-appointed criminal defense) because they prefer to wait for the results of three studies: one, currently being undertaken by JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee) on the court-appointed system for criminal defendants; and two studies, one a "Section One" official Virginia legislative study to review the creation of a "Parent Advocacy Commission (similar to VIDC) that would be responsible for training, practice standards, oversight, and support for court-appointed counsel in child dependency cases; and another study to continue the work of the workgroup that created the report that recommended the compensation increase in child dependency court as well as the creation of a Parent Advocacy Commission, and multi-disciplinary law offices (similar to a public defender office).

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Good news: moving the ball down the court

However, educating legislators about the importance of this work has advanced since VPLC first began working on this issue (the first attempt was in 2015, to allow a fee cap waiver similar to those allowed in criminal cases). We tried that approach again in 2020, again to no avail. However, this year, more legislators expressed support; and NO legislators suggested that parents don't deserve competent, fairly-compensated counsel. Further, there are signs that the Governor has taken an interest in this issue.

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Our progress this year: the "Section One" study bill (SB1443, Deeds), was reported unanimously from the Senate Rules Committee on Friday, and $35,000 to pay for the study was included in today's SFAC budget report. The study resolution (SJ241, Edwards), to continue the work of the 2022 Workgroup was also reported unanimously by S. Rules on Friday.

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However, our work is not done: both these bills could be killed in the House sometime after they crossover on Tuesday.?

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Reason to hope

I had a call with Prudence Beidler Carr of the ABA Center on Children and the Law last week. She advised that attorneys and advocates in many states have struggled to advance this issue, and our efforts to educate our legislature on the importance of these cases are continuing along the trajectory of many states that ultimately adopted improvements.?

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More and more states have done or are in the process of treating this an important area of law:

• New Mexico last year created the Office of Family Representation and Advocacy:
• Colorado did so even before the federal funds were available, way back in 2005 (and recently expanded their Office of Respondent Parents Counsel):
• As did North Carolina, adding to their Public Defender Commission the Office of Parent Representation, in 2006:

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Currently, Virginia is one of only 8 states that has not drawn down any of the federal funds available for legal representation in child dependency cases. But we know that Virginia is always cautious about adopting anything new.

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I will continue to send action alerts as the two study bills are considered in the House!

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Valerie L’Herrou

Virginia State Coordinator, NACC