For too long, the quality of legal representation for families involved in child protective services cases has depended on where they live in Michigan.
That's among newly-released findings from the Child Protective Legal Representation Task Force that lay out how the state should begin to remedy that. The group released a report with those findings on Tuesday.
The task force was co-chaired by Michigan Supreme Court justices Megan Cavanaugh and Kyra Harris-Bolden. Cavanaugh said the current county-led system of providing and paying for attorneys in CPS cases has led to “a system that that results in wide disparities in child protective proceedings with respect to—among other issues—how attorneys are paid, how much training and support they have and need to receive, and how actively they must engage in any particular case.
“The bottom line for this report is really crystal clear,” Cavanaugh added. “It's establishing a statewide system of legal representation in the child protective system as long overdue.”
Vivek Sankaran, a University of Michigan law professor and head of U of M’s Child Advocacy Law Clinic, said that office would serve a variety of functions: “To set minimum standards for training, ensure standard and fair compensation across the board, monitor attorney performance, ensure training requirements for those attorneys, but really to address the disparity and to ensure that there is a basic level of quality for attorneys who do this work.”
The current county-driven system has effectively created “83 different systems of legal representation in Michigan right now,” Sankaran said. “And as a result, families' ability to get justice and navigate the court system really depends on where you live.”
Sankaran said his clinic routinely receives calls from parents facing loss of their parental rights and haven’t even spoken to their attorney.
“So our hope is that by creating the statewide office, we will ensure that attorneys have the tools they need to help guide families through the system,” he said.
Cavanaugh admits that establishing such a statewide office will be a “heavy lift,” but believes they now have an effective blueprint. And she stressed that the work is vital.
“Legal representation ensures that decisions are made based on fair and complete information, and that governmental intervention in the family is conducted only when necessary, and when it's lawfully and ethically done,” she said.
Further action on the task force’s recommendations will require the state Legislature to move on them. The report did not lay out suggested timelines for action.
