Committee hears Senate Bill 151 to establish public defender family-defense units

The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Thursday on Senate Bill 151, a proposal that would direct the director of the Office of State Public Defender to establish organizational trial units to provide family defense and child representation services.

Senator Dennis Lenz, representing Senate District 25 in far-west Billings, opened the hearing, saying the bill would require the public defender’s office to create up to two organizational trial units that would provide counsel to parents and establish organizational trial units to provide counsel to children. "I'm bringing before you senate bill 151 a bill directing the director of office state public defender to establish units to provide family defense and child representation services," Lenz said.

The bill builds on a change from the previous legislative session, when lawmakers established the Council for Children with a goal that every child involved in the system would have representation. Lenz said that in practice many areas still rely on contract attorneys or guardian ad litem volunteers and that some of those representatives carry very large caseloads. "We have some areas of the state that have guardian ad litems, but many of them were representing up to like 200 people," he said, calling that legally possible but not necessarily effective advocacy.

Lenz told the committee the Senate financing committee pared back the funding request for the program and that the fiscal note presented to the committee reflects that scaled-back approach. He also said he has heard positive reports about the Council for Children work but that the consistent training and approach from the Office of State Public Defender would be a benefit. "This will be take a little bit of a step in approach. That fiscal note is accurate based upon that pair back," Lenz said.

Kelly Driscoll, family defense bureau chief at the Office of State Public Defender, appeared as an informational witness. Driscoll described the bureau’s role and said the office assigns attorneys to represent children and parents in DN cases, and she identified herself as an informational witness for the committee. "I am the family defense bureau chief at the office of public defender. We assign attorneys to represent kids and parents across the state in DN cases, and I'm here as an informational witness," Driscoll said.

Committee chairing remarks opened the hearing and the panel indicated it planned to take executive action on House bills later in the day. No formal vote on Senate Bill 151 was recorded during the hearing.

The hearing continued with the committee limiting testimony to two minutes per proponent or opponent and calling for informational witnesses in the room and online.