FLDS Presents Appellate Pro Bono Opportunities
The pro bono committees of the Austin Bar Civil Appellate Section and the State Bar Appellate Section are distributing the following message regarding the FLDS matter in El Dorado:
Appellate Pro Bono
Volunteers Needed
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El Dorado ChildrenLawyers from across the state have volunteered to represent children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in El Dorado. Many of the volunteers are neither family lawyers nor trial lawyers and are unfamiliar with the steps required to preserve the appellate record or to prosecute an appeal. These lawyers could use an appellate mentor now.
There is a mechanism in place for you to register if you choose to help.
The online resource and communication center for judges and attorneys handling child abuse cases is located at http://www.lawyersforchildren.org/.
You do not have to register to use the resource center to volunteer your services. Simply go to the blue menu bar (at the top of every page) and click on the tab for “Pro Bono” and then click on “Volunteer for Pro Bono Network.” You can designate the areas of assistance and types of assistance you would like to provide on the on-line form. Appellate law, trial skills, trial preparation, and discovery are among the many areas in which you can mentor another attorney. Please check the box for “Eldorado Children” and then all other areas that apply.
The list of those who register to provide pro bono services is accessible only by judges and attorneys who register to use the resource center. Texas Lawyers for Children maintains tight security over the site, and verifies that those who register are the judges and attorneys they claim to be.
If you need any help signing up for the pro bono network, the Texas Lawyers for Children Help Desk number is 800-993-5TLC (5852). The Help Desk lines are answered Monday – Friday from 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
In addition to both sections' outstanding appellate pro bono initiatives, this program presents a wonderful opportunity for appellate lawyers to help those in need of their expertise.
I am going to use this opportunity to vent a little bit on the topic of the right to assistance of counsel.
These folks don't need volunteers -- they need competent appointed counsel!
Authorities:
The right to counsel in criminal proceedings has long been recognized as a constitutional right. See Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S. Ct. 792 (1963). In a civil proceeding, the right to counsel is more limited, applicable when a deprivation of liberty is possible. See Lassiter v. Dep't of Social Servs., 452 U.S. 18, 25-26, 101 S. Ct. 2153, 2158-59 (1981); Ridgway v. Baker, 720 F.2d 1409, 1413 (5th Cir. 1983) (noting that "[t]he right to counsel turns on whether deprivation of liberty may result from a proceeding, not upon its characterization as "criminal" or "civil"; In re J.A.G., 18 S.W.3d 772, 774 (Tex. App."San Antonio 2000, no pet.)
When your kids have been stolen from you or in other words, when the fundamental liberties known and recognized for over a century by the USSC as requiring heightened scrutiny prior to monkeying around with -- rights loved and recognized and appreciated by humans around the globe since the dawn of man -- "monumental" rights to quote the Honorable Justice Puryear are infringed, and if you are not fortunate enough to have the means to afford counsel (and who really can, these days ;-), you are entitled to the appointment of competent counsel!
Is this not well established? Those entitled to appointed counsel in civil cases get a bad rap -- they are second-class clients deemed to either be "wife beaters", "child beaters" or "deadbeats" before the process even begins.
I'm copying this message and this post to an organization -- the "Texas Fair Defense Project"
( http://www.texasfairdefenseproject.org )
TFDP is run by two of the most capable appellate attorneys around: Andrea Marsh and Harry Williams IV. These fine folks are both Yale Law grads with extensive appellate experience at all levels of practice up to and including the United States Supreme Court.
I admire their mission and I do not fault them for being exclusively focused on criminal work. I do endeavor; however to remind everyone that the blood of the disenfranchised citizens on the civil side of the street runs just as red as the rest of us.