Committee lays over technical bill to allow Office of Appellate Counsel in Training to begin operations

House File 1862, a technical bill to clarify administrative authority for the recently created Office of Appellate Counsel in Training, was presented and laid over by the House Judiciary, Finance and Civil Law Committee on April 1.

Representative Badgett, the bill sponsor, told the committee that the office was created by last session’s House File 922 to provide appellate attorneys and training for parents appealing child-protection cases, including Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and tribal matters. After passage, the office has been unable to hire staff or start operations because the statute lacked clarity about which branch of government would administer the office and who appoints the initial chair.

A remote witness, identified as Ms. Wolman, testified the office has broad support from justice partners, the Guardian ad Litem office and county attorneys and is intended to address geographic inequities in parent representation on appeal. "People who have a child removed in a more rural county have a really different set of resources and access to attorneys than those who live in the metro area," she said, adding that the office would also provide training to help implement recent laws including the African American Family Preservation Act.

What the bill does

According to the sponsor’s presentation, HF1862 clarifies that the office will be part of the executive branch, designates the governor to appoint the initial chair from the board members, allows hiring of an executive director and staff, and sets compensation levels. The sponsor said funding for the office was already allocated and the bill does not require new spending.

Procedure and next steps

Committee members had no substantive objections on the record; the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus package.