Utah's Office of Guardian ad Litem, which is charged with representing children in cases of alleged abuse or neglect in both juvenile and district court proceedings, is losing attorneys at a rapid pace.
Rick Smith, Director of the Office of Guardian ad Litem, said:
"His office has suffered a 20% attorney turnover rate over the last three years."
"Our biggest concern is the rate of pay for our attorneys. One of the items that we sought last year was an increase in funding so that we could pay our attorneys comparable to what other state attorneys are paid. That was not addressed. That continues to be a real problem for us."
"The standards set by the federal government, and by the American Bar Association and the National Association of Counsel for Children, says that attorneys representing children should not represent more than 100 children at a time. Our attorneys currently represent a little over 200 children per attorney, so our ratios are quite high."
Source:
Guardian ad Litem Office In Need of Funding
Rick Smith, Director of the Office of Guardian ad Litem, said:
"His office has suffered a 20% attorney turnover rate over the last three years."
"Our biggest concern is the rate of pay for our attorneys. One of the items that we sought last year was an increase in funding so that we could pay our attorneys comparable to what other state attorneys are paid. That was not addressed. That continues to be a real problem for us."
"The standards set by the federal government, and by the American Bar Association and the National Association of Counsel for Children, says that attorneys representing children should not represent more than 100 children at a time. Our attorneys currently represent a little over 200 children per attorney, so our ratios are quite high."
Source:
Guardian ad Litem Office In Need of Funding
2 comments:
They're in the wrong business; they should become guardians or conservators and reap the riches!
Guardian as litem position should not be filled by a lawyer. It should be filled by a social worker, psychologist or the like. Lawyers are trained to take one side of the case and then go out and WIN it. They are not impartial people. In our case the GAL made about 20 mistakes in the information she produced for the Court. Mistakes we could prove were
were false. When we tried to tell her about one of the applicants for guardianship (an 18 year old daughter) the GAL told us that she did not want to hear bad things about her. (The girl has since been convicted for narcotic sales and distribution, petty theft and two DUI's) They gave guardianship to an Agency who took everything he had and put him in a nursing home little better than a homeless shelter.
After 6 trips to court, the Judge finally said it was the first time she had ever seen anyone released from guardianship. The Guardians said that if he still needed any guardianship they would not take him back as "his mother was too much trouble". (and he now had no money left).
He has been home for 3 years now. He is comfortable, well cared for and has the best medical care we can provide for him. He is alert, mentally sound and interested in life. He is in a wheel chair and suffers from ataxia but it does not keep him off the computer and out of chess torunaments. The Agency would have had him a prisoner in a 3rd rate nursing home filled with drugs.
If you are loosing GAL Attorneys then GOOD.......go get some workers who are trained to work with all types of people in an impartial way........not people out to win cases.
Molly
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