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Justice Administrative Commission may not be ordered to pay court-appointed counsel for indigent, non-parent legal custodian in dependency proceeding [Added 7/29/08] The Florida Justice Administrative Commission ("JAC") was ordered to pay attorney's fees and costs to the court-appointed counsel for an indigent, nonparent legal custodian in a juvenile dependency proceeding. The child's grandfather was the child's legal custodian. Seeking to quash the order, the JAC petitioned the Second DCA for a writ of certiorari. The appellate court granted the petition. The grandfather had neither a constitutional nor statutory (see Fla.Stat. sec. 39.013(9)(a) (2006)) right to appointed counsel. Consequently, the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering the JAC to pay for the lawyer's services. The court further noted that this issue was in the hands of the legislature. "We recognize that the grandfather has been the court-approved custodian of this child for almost her entire life and that it seems counter to public policy to deny fees to the legal representative of this indigent parental substitute. However, our branch of government possesses neither the power to appropriate funds nor the ability to identify, by enactment of law, to whom those revenues should be paid. It is the legislature's task to perform these public policy functions and, in this instance, it has clearly spoken. Unless the legislature elects to amend the statutory definition of parent to encompass nonparent custodians or to otherwise authorize publicly-funded counsel for nonparent legal custodians against whom a dependency proceeding is initiated, the JAC has neither the statutory nor constitutional authority to compensate court-appointed attorneys in [court-appointed counsel]'s circumstances." Justice Administrative Commission v. Peterson, ___ So.2d ___ (Fla. 2d DCA, No. 2D07-6075, 7/23/2008). |
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