Juvenile Court Pays Years-Old Legal Bills

Progress Prompts Lawyers to Drop Suit

Court-appointed lawyers working in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court have dropped a lawsuit against the court system because they are belatedly being paid for their work, both sides said this week.

Two lawyers who frequently are asked to represent abused children or allegedly abusive parents, Michael S. Arif and Matthew W. Greene, said they hadn't been paid for more than $73,000 worth of work, some dating back more than two years, and numerous other juvenile court lawyers said they had the same experience.

After trying -- and failing -- to get answers from Juvenile Court Clerk Jennifer Flanagan, Arif and Greene filed suit in the Virginia Supreme Court last month, asking the court to order Flanagan to process their vouchers.

"We're submitting the vouchers as we're receiving them and following the process," Flanagan said.

The Virginia attorney general's office represented Flanagan and met with Arif and Greene, who found that about $15,000 of their old vouchers had been paid, leaving them with an unpaid balance of more than $55,000. Their records show that most of their bills were for less than $500.

Virginia's payment rates are among the lowest in the country. It pays lawyers a maximum of $120 for representing an abused child victim or a criminal misdemeanor defendant, with the possibility of an additional $120 under extenuating circumstances. For felonies, defense lawyers may be paid a maximum of $650. In cases in which lawyers are appointed to serve as a guardian ad litem to a child or parent, lawyers are paid $55 an hour out of court and $75 an hour for in-court work, with no cap.

Greene and other lawyers said that when courts pay appointed attorneys poorly, or not at all, some might cut corners. If appointed guardians don't do their jobs completely, Greene said, young victims could be at further risk.

The vouchers and the payments started moving last week, Greene said. On Sept. 30, the Supreme Court granted Arif and Greene's motion to withdraw the suit.

Flanagan referred an inquiry to James Dedes, the juvenile court's services director. "There were terrible backlogs, no question about it," Dedes said. "But we are caught up on all vouchers, and hopefully we will stay there."

Greene said, "We've received [assurances] from the juvenile court that they're going to process them very quickly, so the issue became moot."

Greene added that he had not wanted to file the suit, "but we did get their attention, and the vouchers did get processed."