Fundamental legal right often denied parents

BY VIVEK SANKARAN • JULY 5, 2009

http://www.freep.com/article/20090705/OPINION05/907050455/Fundamental+legal+right+often+denied+parents

Last week, the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Ronald McBride, a father whose parental rights to his three children were permanently terminated despite the fact that the juvenile court denied him the right to a lawyer throughout the entire case.

The Department of Human Services admitted that the trial court made a mistake. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office conceded that the father’s statutory and constitutional rights were violated and that reversal was required. National groups, including the National Association of Counsel for Children and the Public Counsel Project, urged the court to correct the injustice. And Justice Maura Corrigan, joined by Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, wrote a powerful dissent providing compelling reasons why the court should hear the case.

All for naught. The court’s one-sentence response: "We are not persuaded the questions presented should be reviewed by the court."

With that, the court endorsed the permanent severance of the parent-child relationship — often characterized as the "civil death penalty" — without affording the Bay County man the most fundamental of procedural rights: the right to a lawyer.

The McBride outrage was no fluke. But even though the Michigan Juvenile Code and court rules explicitly provide poor parents the right to an attorney in all child protective proceedings, much work remains to be done to implement this right and to ensure that parents receive effective representation.

In 2005, the American Bar Association concluded with respect to parent representation in Michigan that "what was reported to evaluators … and what was observed in court hearings fall disturbingly short of standards of practice." More recently, Justice Corrigan observed a "disturbing and recent pattern of trial court’s failures to appoint counsel and untimely appointments of counsel to represent parents in child protective proceedings."

How lawyers help judges

Justice Corrigan’s observations match anecdotal evidence documenting wide variation across the state in the quality of representation provided to parents. Each county sets its own standards for how parents’ attorneys are appointed. Compensation rates, training requirements, and the timing of appointments vary widely. The quality of counsel parents receive often depends on the county in which they reside.

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