Lately the CPS case load has gotten heavy in our county. With only two prosecutors in the office it is taking away from other things. Does anyone know if the County Attorney must represent CPS or can we request that CPS use their own attorneys?

Section 264.009(a) of the Family Code provides: "Except as provided by Subsection (b), (c), or (f), in any action under this code, the department (CPS) shall be represented in court by the county attorney of the county where the action is brought, unless the district attorney or criminal district attorney of the county elects to provide representation." In essence, the exceptions apply if the county, district or criminal district attonrey is "unable to represent the department in an action under this code because of a confoict of interest or because special circumstances exist[.]" Fam. Code sec. 264.009(b). If you can squeeze into that outfit, you might just get away. Until the recent budgetary difficulties, we had a certain measure of success in getting CPS to bring in their in-house counsel when we got overloaded. For the most part, that exit strategy is no more.

Whatever we do lets keep asking questions that Scott might seem interested in answering. Between the headlines and the stories they make for better reading than any westlaw publication in existence.
Note to Sarah W. of course TDCAA publications are much more interesting.