A non-profit organization in Washington D.C. and a West Coast law school today published a report that gives Maine a failing grade for its efforts to protect the legal rights of abused and neglected children. Maine was downgraded because of its policy on legal representations of children.
The so-called "National Report Card on Legal Representation for Abused and Neglected Children" was released on Capitol Hill by the First Star children's advocacy organization and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law.
Maine was one of seven states that earned an F on the report card, alongside Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, and North Dakota.
"Maine law does not require there to be an attorney appointed for kids in abuse and neglect proceedings," says Elisa Weichel, a staff attorney with the Children's Advocacy Institute. She says that In a child protection proceeding in Maine, a child is usually represented by a guardian ad litem, which can be either an attorney or a trained, court-appointed special advocate.
"Because the statute allows the court to appoint either/or, it's not a requirement that attorneys be appointed; and that's our biggest criteria," Weichel says. "That was worth 40 points."
Weichel says another problem for Maine is that when a guardian ad litem is appointed for a child in dependency proceedings, state law does not require that the guardian advocate for the expressed wishes of the child.
"We like there to be a client-directed role, meaning that the child's wishes are what the attorney advocates for, not the best interests or what the attorney perceives to be the best interests for the child," Weichel says. "So we gave up to 20 points for states based on whether the attoenry's role is client directed or best interest."
In Maine, the guardian ad litem, who may be an attorney, is required to articulate the child's wishes but not necessarily advocate for them.
"We're dismayed and shocked, but I think if you look beyond the cover of the report and say who's writing the report you can get a better sense of the motivation," says Mary Ann Lynch, the Director of Court Information for Maine's judicial branch. She says she believes the organizations that published the report have the best interests of children at heart, but points out that a law school would advocate for the use of traditional lawyers whenever possible.
"Most of the time in Maine a guardian ad litem is a lawyer," Lynch says. "Sometimes it is another kind of professional, such as a social worker. But all of our guardian ad litems receive annual training from the Maine court."
Lynch says many guardian ad litems have smaller case loads than the average attorney. And she disagrees with the report's standard that children should always direct their guardian ad litem in dependency proceedings.
"I am frankly shocked that a report would downgrade Maine for requiring that a report be based on the child's best interests," Lynch says. "And in fact they seem to give priority to grading based on what the child wants, which all of us as parents know, that may not always be in the child's best interests."
The First Star organization and Children's Advocacy Institute say they hope the report card will become a tool to increase public awareness of child representation in courts and prompt an amendment to the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act that would require all abused and neglected foster children receive client-directed representation. Calls to the Maine Children's Alliance were not returned by air time.
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