I had an interesting experience sitting in Judge Jim York's court over in the Family Law Center this morning on an enforcement action. While we were waiting to go before the court, the parties in a suit to revoke the father's community supervision was called (apparently the father had been held in contempt for nonpayment of child support and then failed to pay the back due amount).
Judge York informed the father that since confinement was a possibility should the judge revoke his community supervision that he was entitled to the same rights as a criminal defendant -- one of those rights being the right to appointed counsel if he was indigent.
As proof of his inability to hire an attorney, the father produced pay stubs showing he had a job and was making $10 an hour. Judge York then looked at the father and told him that he was going to deny him an appointed attorney because, although he couldn't afford an attorney, he was not, by definition, indigent.
I sat and thought about that for a second and was dumbfounded (particularly since the next case on the docket involved a doctor and his wife getting a divorce and the court had appointed an attorney to represent the interests of the children (who had no risk of going to jail.).
After I got back to the office I pulled down my copy of Black's Law Dictionary and looked up the meaning of indigency. According to Black's, the "inability to afford an attorney" renders one indigent for purposes of the Sixth Amendment.
Oops. Score one for Harris County.
4 comments:
Do you not understand that the Family Code requires the appointment of an ad litem in certain situations and that the couple will be paying the ad litem fees? The county doesn't pay for it like with an appointed attorney for an indigent. Not only will the litigants be paying the ad litem's attorney fees, the order will be written to include those fees as child support so that if they don't pay, they can be held in contempt. Guessing you don't do too much family law.
Thank you for your comment.
As a matter of fact, I do try to steer clear of the Family Law Center whenever possible. In the case I referenced, I'm sure the costs of the ad litem attorney will be footed by the parties.
However, there are ad litem attorneys appointed to represent children who are paid by the county because the parties are indigent.
My point was simply that the court made a clearly erroneous ruling in a case in which a man who faced a jail sentence was denied an attorney despite the fact he could not afford to hire one. It is appalling to me that Harris County continues to turn a blind eye to the constitutional rights of indigent citizens all in the name of saving a buck.
But we can certainly build new playpens for the owners of the city's professional sports franchises.
You certainly have that right. We can cut appointed defense attorney pay and refuse to appoint them for truly indigent defendants, but God forbid that every sport doesn't have its own stadium. Family court is like criminal court, the judges expect you to have no car and no job in order to get appointed counsel. Its even worse over there because you can't get appointed counsel on appeal, either. So if you didn't have an attorney representing you in the hearing, you can't qualify to get an attorney to represent you on appeal of the fact that you were denied appointed counsel. That's messed up.
I am a disabled vet, receiving SSDI & VA payments. After my bills I have less than 120 for food & medical expenses for an entire month. Judge Jim York refused to appoint me an attorney. Then he continuously verbally abused me for not being able to afford one. Best of all Judge Jim York refused to uphold his own orders and awarded damages to a represented party for violating the courts orders.
If you want a perfect example of his abuses; check out ford vs ford (2010).
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