Author: Robert Latham
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GAL Program Issues New Standards of Operations
This month the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program issued an updated set of program standards. The standards cover new areas such as the transportation of children, and redefine old areas like the relationship between the volunteer GAL, the supervisor, and the program attorney–now called the volunteer child advocate (VCA), the child advocacy coordinator (CAC), and…
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Fourth DCA: Consent to 39.806(1)(c) is Consent to LRM
Though this isn’t as exciting as the Affordable Healthcare Act ruling, it’s at least a substantive dependency case, which we haven’t seen in what feels like forever. It’s been a very quiet summer. Thank goodness for the Fourth DCA who this week adopted the Second DCA’s reasoning from In re G.M., holding that an implied consent…
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Juvenile LWOP Unconstitutional
Is the imposition of a life-without-parole sentence on a fourteen-year-old child convicted of homicide a violation of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments when the child did not personally engage in any physical violence toward the victim and when the sentence resulted from a mandatory sentencing scheme? In…
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Did Wilkins Try to Disband ILSAC?
That’s certainly word on the street. If you know details, feel free to pass them along.
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Case Law Review: Defaults, One-Parent Findings, Swahili Consents to Adoption, Paternity Standing, and TPRs for Chronic Mental Illness
(1) You can only default at an advisory or trial, not a pretrial or calendar call. J.E. v. DCF, — So.3d —-, 2012 WL 1889781 (Fla. 2nd DCA) (haven’t we learned this by now?). (2) In M.W. v. DCF, — So.3d —-, 2012 WL 1889783 (Fla. 2nd DCA) (so close), the mother and father were TPR’d. The…
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Miami-Dade Appointed Counsel Fees in Dependency and TPR
In the midst of the very public debate and discussion over the Limited Registry for court appointed counsel, one of my three readers has forwarded this records request from the JAC: the 2010-11, 2011-12 fees paid to dependency attorneys in Miami-Dade County (including dependency, TPR, and appeals). I have redacted the names and replaced them…
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Public listing of state employee salaries
Search for any Florida state employee’s salary here. It doesn’t include the myriad of government folks who get paid by counties, grants, private organizations, etc. (Note: GAL Program salaries are lumped under the JAC.)
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ACLU and NASW File Amicus Briefs on Dual Maternity Case
The ACLU and National Association of Social Workers have filed amicus briefs in the Dual Maternity case. I haven’t read them yet, but they’re available here.
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Judge Griffin in the Fifth: 39.806(1)(j) Makes No Sense
Judge Griffin dissented in part from a TPR appeal to point out the lunacy of section 39.806(1)(j): I am unable to concur in the decision to remand for removal of the termination under Section 39.806(1)(j), Florida Statutes (2011). That section was added to the list of grounds for termination of parental rights in 2008, and,…