Advocates needed to help children

If parents involved in child-abuse litigation can rightfully hire an attorney and the state is also represented, why shouldn't the children affected retain a lawyer?

While some are apt to believe the concept may be a '90s trend, experts familiar with the state child-care system say it is vital to prevent children from languishing in foster care.

Without an attorney or court-appointed volunteer to represent them, the 1,400 Clark County children in foster care could wait years for their day in court. Only after their court appearance can children receive permanent placement back with their families or with an adoptive family.

A collection of Clark County officials, judges and lawmakers has requested funding for a program that not only would assign attorneys to children, but also might keep the county out of the courtroom.

A 1974 federal law requires that every child mired in court proceedings involving domestic violence, abuse or neglect must be assigned a guardian ad litem -- an attorney or advocate. But Clark County is not close to complying.

Clark County does provide court-appointed special advocates (CASAs) -- lay volunteers who voice a child's concerns in court -- but there aren't enough to represent children who are in the initial stages of court proceedings, according to Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle.

"It would be helpful to get them in as soon as possible," he said. "We just don't have the luxury to do that.

"A fair estimate would be that 25 percent of the 1,400 children in foster care have CASAs," Hardcastle said. "And that might be an optimistic figure."

The risk is that if a child without representation is placed in a dangerous setting, the county can be held liable, Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who helped create the proposed program, said.

Government officials have been requesting money from the state for years to not only bolster the county CASA program but also to hire attorneys for children. Until recently, however, there was little interest from lawmakers.

Williams said she has been pushing to provide children with attorneys since she became a member of the state's Domestic Violence Task Force in 1984.

"It's a cultural thing," Williams said. "People feel children belong to their parents; why should the child have separate representation from their parents?"

As the Clark County group developed its pilot program, the San Francisco-based National Center for Youth Law -- which has already penalized other states for not complying with the law requiring attorneys for children -- turned its attention toward Nevada.

"It's quite clear they need additional staffing," the center's staff attorney, Michele Cheng, said of the CASA program. "But this is not a Nevada issue, it's a nationwide issue."

If the county group collects its goal of $360,000 for the program -- which it hopes to implement in September -- it will hire attorneys and strengthen the CASA program.

Williams last week warned fellow board members that she will request $112,733 of the county budget be channeled toward hiring an assistant CASA manager and a CASA legal secretary to help train and supervise additional volunteer representatives.

A Jan. 4 letter to Gov. Kenny Guinn from the county group reminds him that the state is not in compliance with the law and asks for $200,000 to hire two attorneys and to start a fund to contract out to other law firms. The group is also asking for $50,000 in federal funds.

Clark County must assign CASA members to children, but the law does not require the county to provide lawyers for children. Officials familiar with child care agree that attorneys can be much more effective than CASA volunteers.

"A CASA represents the child's best interest; an attorney represents the child's wishes," state Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, who was also on the Clark County committee that developed the law, said.

Attorneys are likely to be more successful in pleading a child's case to a judge because lawyers are more accustomed to the courtroom atmosphere. They can refer to previous decisions and can make motions.

"The theory is a child could go through the system quicker because someone is pushing for them," UNLV law professor Annette Appell said. "You really need people to push the system because everybody is overloaded."

While some states, such as New York, assign attorneys to every child involved in a Family Court hearing, Clark County said the judge and CASA representative likely would determine when an attorney is needed on a case-by-case basis.

In some cases, the CASA representative and the child disagree. For example, a child in the middle of a domestic-violence hearing may want to be placed with one parent, and the advocate may not feel that is the best solution.

"When the parents are fighting, their two sides of the story are told by attorneys, but the child is not represented," Hardcastle said.

Critics may feel that the child is too irrational and may make the wrong decision. But, as Appell emphasized, any client can be emotionally upset and, therefore, irrational.

"In the end, the court makes the final decision," she said. "But the child should have a voice."

Hardcastle said children in the state's child-care system will be the top priority for the program's attorneys.

A lawyer can put more pressure on parents who, for example, are required to undergo drug counseling before regaining custody of their child. More importantly, the attorney can nudge the state to quickly process children so they are not left in limbo.

"Some children have been there for years and there is no parental effort to reunite the family," Buckley said. "An attorney would be beneficial to challenge the state to move the child into a permanent home."

An attorney would also serve a different purpose than a social worker, who monitors the foster-care system but can't necessarily intervene with court action. Also, Nevada social workers are processing as many as 45 cases each at any one time and might not be able to provide the personal attention children need.

Williams said the purpose of the group's program is purely for the children's benefit.

"This program is not something we cooked up in the last eight months," Williams said. "It's been simmering with all of us. I just wanted the County Commission to know it's coming, get ready to support it."

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