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Spotlight Feature
Bridgeport Youth Advocate for
Better Legal Representation
by Martha Shirk
Cameron Iacovelli
Soon after Carolyn Signorelli became Connecticut's chief child protection attorney a year ago, Connecticut Voices for Children and Casey Family Services brought together about a dozen youth and young adults to talk to her about their experiences with the attorneys appointed to represent them when they were in foster care.
Signorelli opened the meeting by telling the youth that she wanted to improve the representation they got from their state-paid attorneys. "The majority of them responded, 'What attorney?'" Signorelli recalls. "I was shocked at the fact that only two of the youth present recalled meeting with an attorney, and even in their cases, it was rare."
The meeting fueled Signorelli's resolve to improve representation for Connecticut youth who are in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and to enlist youth in persuading legislators of the need for change. Since then, participants from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunity Initiative's Bridgeport site have taken part in a forum last fall, (co-sponsored by Connecticut Voices, Casey Family Services and others) and testified before legislative committees in February and March. In addition, Connecticut Voices for Children, which oversees the Initiative's work in Bridgeport and Hartford, commissioned a study by Yale Law School students that documented the inadequacy of legal services to Connecticut youth and called for improvements.
Its implementation of the Initiative was what galvanized the advocacy efforts of Connecticut Voices for Children around the representation issue, said Shelley Geballe, president.
"As we began to talk to the youth who enrolled in the Initiative, one of the things that we continually heard was that they weren't seeing their lawyers," she said. "The issue had been in the background of our agenda for some time. But the kids' stories really catalyzed our involvement. And once the chief child protection attorney heard the youth, she grew even more aggressive."
Carolyn Signorelli
Connecticut contracts with private attorneys to represent children and indigent parents who are involved in neglect or abuse proceedings. The attorneys are paid $500 for up to 30 hours of work on a case, which, Geballe noted, amounts to just $16.67 an hour for those who put in 30 hours, or $100 an hour for those who put in five. The flat fee provides no incentive to spend more hours on a case, and as a result, some attorneys never meet with their clients before representing them in court, let alone investigate their circumstances.
The low compensation leads many attorneys to take on too many clients, the Yale study found, leaving them too little time to spend on individual cases. In the first quarter of fiscal 2007, about half of the 144 attorneys had more than 100 state-referred clients, and 53 had more than 150, according to the study, in addition to their other private-pay clients.
"These figures are unacceptable and force attorneys to provide substandard and inadequate representation to their numerous child and parent clients," the study concluded. "Almost any of the alternatives to our current system would lead to better case outcomes."
Cameron Iacovelli, 21, was one of the young people at last year's meeting with Signorelli who could not recall meeting his attorney while in foster care. At an appropriations committee hearing in February, Cameron re-told the story that had shocked Signorelli. The committee was hearing from supporters and opponents of Governor M. Jodi Rell's proposed two-year budget for the Commission on Child Protection (CCP), which appoints and pays attorneys in child-protection cases. Advocates for children in foster care in Connecticut argue that the proposed budget does not include enough money to ensure effective representation.
"I've been in DCF [Department of Children and Families] care since I was 12 years old, but didn't know that I had a lawyer until I was 18 years old," Cameron testified. "That was when I was told by my DCF worker that I no longer had a lawyer.
"From the age of 12 until I turned 18, I didn't know that I had a lawyer representing me. A lot of decisions were made for me, and this person went to court to affect those decisions without my knowledge or influence. I wonder how a lawyer represented me if he didn't know me. How can he represent me without knowing what I want? For all he knew, I could have been a girl. I believe that if they want to represent you, they have to know you and meet you."
Connecticut allows young people to voluntarily remain in foster care until they're 23 if they're attending school, and Cameron has stayed in foster care so that he can take advanced computer courses, with a career in information technology as his goal. He also works full time in the mailroom at a law firm.
At a second legislative hearing in late March before the Judiciary Committee, Mackenzie Robinson, 20, talked about his experiences with his state-paid attorneys. He went into foster care when he was seven and moved repeatedly over the next eleven years.
"While I remember one attorney I had early on, I never met with her outside of court at all," he told the legislators. "She never came to speak with me or see where I was living. When I had problems, I didn't feel like I could call her for help or guidance. I never had a say in my own life."
Mackenzie also remembers a second attorney to whom he repeatedly appealed for help. "I called him on numerous occasions, and he always said, 'I'll get back to you,' but he never did," Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie has worked in various jobs since aging out of care and hopes to begin training in August as an emergency medical technician, with the goal of becoming a firefighter.
Mackenzie Robinson
Cameron's and Mackenzie's testimony helped make legislators aware that inadequate representation is a serious problem, Signorelli said. "When the legislators were told their stories about having aged out of the system without having an advocate that ensured that their educational, vocational, mental health or life skills needs were met, they definitely listened and took notice," she said.
Signorelli has proposed scrapping the flat payment system and instead paying lawyers who represent children and parents up to $60 an hour, which is slightly less than what the state pays special public defenders in felony criminal cases. "We will hopefully attract and maintain a sufficient number of competent attorneys to reduce caseloads, increase the amount of time that attorneys spend on their cases and improve the overall quality of the representation provided," Signorelli said.
Better representation will ensure that children's voices are heard in court proceedings, Signorelli said. "An hourly rate system puts them in a much better position to advocate for what the child or youth wants to happen," she said. "Whether their client wants to go home, stay safe, have more visits with siblings or parents, live with a relative, participate in an after-school activity, an attorney can take steps with DCF or the court to make sure these things happen."
Geballe echoed Signorelli's views about the importance of effective representation. "Unless there's good representation of both the child and parent, all the relevant facts aren't before the court, so you're pretty much guaranteed not having the right decision made," she said. "Studies done in jurisdictions with good representation show that when the courts have good information, the length of time in care declines, the number of repeat referrals decreases, and permanency increases."
Signorelli's proposals have been incorporated into House Bill 7238 and House Substitute Bill 1269, which are making their way through the Legislature. Besides increasing compensation for attorneys, the bills would require training for attorneys who represent children and indigent parents, give the chief child attorney the authority to investigate complaints against attorneys, and authorize a pilot program in which representation would be provided through established legal services organizations using a multidisciplinary approach. Action is expected before the legislature adjourns on June 9.
Cameron and Mackenzie can't help but wonder what a difference aggressive representation might have meant for them. "I'd probably actually be living with my family right now if my attorney had been doing his job," Cameron speculated.
Mackenzie thinks that better representation might have helped him find a permanent family instead of a succession of placements in foster families and residential treatment programs. "I wasn't ever going to get back to my biological family, but maybe if I'd had a good lawyer, I could have stayed with the lady from my church that I lived with before I went into foster care," he said.
Mackenzie also wonders whether better representation during his last few years in foster care might have resulted in more support after he left care at 18. "Even now, other kids have benefits that I have not been able to receive," he said. "I have asked for help with school and therapy, but I have not been able to get the help I need."
