AG 2007 01 22 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commentary: State law and procedure will dictate the names and types of cases that fall in this category. Many states use different terminology to describe these cases such as "child in need of assistance," "dependency," "abuse and neglect." B. Role B-1 Models of A ency Attorney Representation: There are two basic models of agency representation: Agency Representation Model: Under this model, the agency attorney represents the agency as a legal entity, much the same as in-house counsel's role in representing a corporation.2 The attorney could be an employee of the agency or of another governmental body, but the agency is clearly the defined client. Some of the benefits of this model include: • reliance on agency's familiarity with a child and family in decision making; • value placed on the agency's expertise in making decisions regarding the safety, permanency and well-being of children and on the lawyer's legal expertise on legal matters; • consistent decision making and interpretation of laws; • legal action supported by caseworker opinion, thus boosting caseworker credibility in court, for example, in deciding when to file an initial petition; and, • the attorney is very familiar with the agency and its practices and policies. One drawback to this model is that caseworkers may believe the attorney represents them personally rather than the agency as a whole. While in practice this may generally be true because the caseworker is the voice for the agency in court, the agency attorney must clearly communicate that he or she represents the agency as an entity and should use the conflict resolution system (refer to D-1 below) when the caseworker's opinion varies from agency policy or the attorney has reason to question the caseworker's decision.3 Prosecutorial Model: Under this model, an elected or appointed attorney (or the attorneys working for this individual), often a district attorney or county attorney, files petitions and appears in court on behalf of the agency, and represents the state or "the people" of the jurisdiction. This may mean the elected attorney may override the views of the agency in court. One positive aspect of this model is that the attorney may be more in tune with the wishes and beliefs of the community and how the community feels about handling child welfare cases. Concerns with this model include: the caseworker is often the only party in court without an attorney speaking for him or her; the caseworker's expertise may be ignored, as the attorney has the ultimate say; the attorney may be handling all the business for the community and therefore not be able to specialize in child welfare law;