Miss Juvie committed a Class A property crime. Because she has had deferred pros and the family is unwilling to pay the restitution, we are proceeding to court. Parents applied for court appointed counsel. The family is (for our community) high income and WELL able to retain counsel. The judge refused to appoint. They refused to retain.

The case has to be set and moved. My thought is that Dad can't represent her - that would be practicing w/o a license. She is certainly not competent. Any suggestions about getting this off high center? (The judge is committed to his stance on this one; he isn't likely to budge even with a reimbursement order.)

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

Answer to your question may be at 51.10 (d) and (e)TFC.

Dawson also has a brief discussion of this issue on page 94 of his book for TJPC. I'll fax you the page if you don't have his book.

On a related matter see Adair v. Kupper, 890 sw2d 216.

Good Luck.

When affluent parents have not wanted to pay for their children's legal fees in my jurisdiction, our juvenile referee tells them that they are responsible for all of their children's needs until they turn eighteen. He tells them that when child has a medical problem, they have to pay for a doctor, and that legal problems are no different. The parents receive a stern enough explanation of their duties as parents that they always hire an attorney.
It appears that these parents are dumping a private discipline problem on the State. Is the child truly out of their control? Have you considered placing a lot of rules and conditions of the child's probation on the parents as well as the child (e.g. parental support meetings, mandatory school visits)?