Governor Nathan Deal named Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Branch a new member of the state’s Commission on Child Support, his office announced today.

The commission arose from executive order in 2005, and its tasks include analyzing child support data, calculating obligation tables, developing training manuals for judges and lawyers and monitoring appellate courts’ acceptance of appeals of domestic relations cases.

State law requires the commission to have 15 members, including an appellate court judge and three superior court judges. Each member serves a four-year-term except state legislators. Deal tapped Branch for the appellate court last July.

Prior to that appointment, she was a litigation partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell. Branch also worked as a senior official in President George W. Bush’s administration and was associate general counsel for rules and legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She earned her law degree from Emory University.

Deal also reappointed five judges and a lawyer to the commission: Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot; part-time Troup County Juvenile Court Judge R. Michael Key; Charles Clay, a partner at Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers; Southwestern Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Rambo; Coweta Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Quillian Baldwin Jr.; and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Campbell.

The combination juvenile code rewrite and justice reform bill is one big step closer to the governor’s desk.

The Senate passed House Bill 242, without debate, in a 47-0 vote this afternoon.

Governor Nathan Deal was an early supporter of HB 242, which incorporates many of the recommendations by the governor’s criminal justice reform council related to the juvenile justice system. For instance, HB 242 would created a two-tiered system of designated felonies and establish community-based treatment programs to keep low-risk youth offenders out of detention centers.

HB 242 also would modernize and clarify Georgia’s existing laws dealing with neglected and delinquent youth.

Bill sponsor Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said previously his bill is expected to save the state about $85 million over the next five years and eliminate the need for two additional juvenile residential facilities. The governor’s criminal justice system has reported it costs Georgia roughly $91,000 per bed per year to house a youth offender in a residential detention center.

There were changes made to HB 242 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will have to be agreed upon by the House before the bill is eligible for the governor’s signature.

Willard, who is also an attorney, earlier characterized the changes as “nothing critical.”

The edits included lengthening the time in which judges must hold hearings for juveniles charged with status offenses, such as truancy, from 24 to 72 hours, and moving the effective date from July 1, 2013, to Jan. 1, 2014.

The Senate version also incorporated several related bills, including House Bill 219, which would allow courts to modify or vacate delinquency convictions of minors charged with sex crimes if those minors were being trafficked for sexual servitude or victims of sexual exploitation.

Legislation overhauling the state’s juvenile code and enacting juvenile justice reforms passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday evening but needs a few more votes before it can go to the governor’s desk.

This stage is as far as a similar bill filed last session went before stalling due to concerns over cost. “I hope to get it before the full Senate as quickly as I can. We did some further tweaking [during the Senate committee hearing], and I want to give the senators enough time to look over the bill,” said its sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs.

House Bill 242 would reorganize the 42-year-old juvenile code, which deals with neglected and delinquent youth. It also incorporates recommendations from the governor’s criminal justice reform council, including creating a two-tiered system of designated felonies and creating more community-based treatment programs to keep juvenile offenders out of detention centers.

Willard characterized the amendments made Wednesday as “nothing critical.” One of the changes would give judges more time in which to hold hearings for juveniles charged with status offenses, such as running away or truancy.

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A 247-page bill overhauling the state’s 42-year-old juvenile code passed the Georgia House of Representatives this morning in a 173-0 vote. House Bill 242, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, also includes several recommendations from the governor’s criminal justice reform council focusing on juvenile offenders.

Those recommended policy changes include creating two tiers of designated felonies and rerouting low-risk juvenile offenders to community-based treatment programs rather than youth detention centers. Willard said the measures are expected to save the state $85 million over the next five years and avoid the need to build two new residential detention centers.

The same chamber unanimously passed the juvenile code overhaul last year, which deals primarily with neglected and delinquent youth. However, that bill was held up in the Senate after prosecutors, indigent defense lawyers and county governments expressed concerns over how much the bill would cost to implement.

Willard’s bill this year softened some mandates on the involvement of prosecutors and indigent defense lawyers in juvenile court proceedings to address those cost burden concerns. “Doing what is the right thing for our children is not a partisan issue,” Willard told the House chamber before the vote.

The combined juvenile code rewrite and juvenile justice reform bill has cleared its first hurdle.

The House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is sponsoring House Bill 242, approved the bill on Tuesday. It will now go to the House Rules Committee, which will decide when it comes up for a full vote by the chamber.

HB 242 is the marriage of previous efforts to overhaul the state’s 42-year-old juvenile code and recommendations by the governor’s criminal justice reform council aimed at curbing youth offender recidivism and how much the state pays to house them in detention centers.

The bill was filed Feb. 7, the same day state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein used her last State of the Judiciary address to push for juvenile justice reform.

The bill sponsor, Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, says the bill addresses “troubled children and children in trouble.”

Some of its provisions include a two-tiered scheme for designated felonies and the creation of community-based treatment programs for juveniles.

For more information on the bill, go to the Daily Report’s archives: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202588653795.

Governor Nathan Deal today appointed three lawyers and a judge as new members of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, a statewide task force created by the Legislature in 1992

The new appointees are:

• Melissa Carter, law professor and director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University Law School;
• Judge Asha Jackson of DeKalb County Superior Court, who was appointed by Deal in February;
• Rachel Lazarus, director of the Gwinnett Pro Bono Project and a staff attorney with Atlanta Legal Aid Society;
• Judge Robert McBurney, whom Deal appointed to the Fulton County Superior Court in February following 10 years as a federal prosecutor.

Deal also reappointed three judges to the Commission: Clayton County Juvenile Court Judge Steven Teske, who is also a member of the governor’s criminal justice reform council; Brunswick Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley, who previously was a district attorney; and Richmond County State Court Judge E. John Flythe, who previously was a prosecutor and a part-time municipal judge in Grovetown.

Earlier this year, the commission successfully pushed legislation through the General Assembly, sponsored by Rep. Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, that eliminated the spousal privilege not to testify in domestic violence cases and created a conditional privilege for shelter workers and other victims’ services providers.

Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs told the Atlanta Bar Association’s Litigation Section this morning that the governor’s expanded criminal justice reform council is now focusing on lowering recidivism among youth offenders and should have a report of suggested policy changes ready by December.

This summer, Governor Nathan Deal renewed the council’s charter and increased  its membership from 13 to 21. He also directed the council to study juvenile justice reforms.

Boggs, co-chairman of the reform council and  a former Waycross Circuit Superior Court judge, said among the strategies being considered by the council are establishing ways to incorporate youth offenders back into their communities, revising the designated felony act to give judges more sentencing options and studying school referrals of delinquent youth into the juvenile court system.

“The earlier in the continuum that we can address criminal justice reform to keep people out of the adult criminal justice system, I think the better off this state will be,” Boggs said.
Housing youth offenders in youth detention centers costs the state roughly $91,000 a year per offender, Boggs said. The bulk of the cost is due to mandate on the juvenile justice system to provide a certified education to juveniles in custody.

The state currently has 619 offenders in youth detention centers, he said.

“By the time they get out, 65 percent will be back within three years,” said Boggs. “They don’t graduate from high school, but they sure do from juvenile court to superior court.”

Last year, the council recommended policy changes aimed at adult offenders which led to omnibus overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176, which included establishing a statewide system of accountability courts, increasing some non-violent felony thresholds and lowering the penalties for some non-violent, drug-related crimes.

Boggs also said one of his goals is to build consensus among the 21-member panel, which includes judges, lawyers and lawmakers, for the restoration of judicial discretion in sentencing. The council last year failed to reach unanimous agreement on the issue. Some reduced minimum sentences were suggested to the state Legislature, but not all were included in the omnibus overhaul legislation known as House Bill 1176.

“Mandatory minimums take away discretion from that very judge who is in the courtroom who can see witnesses and who can judge the evidence and who can determine best aggravating and mitigating circumstances and who can decide best in that setting what is an appropriate sentence,” Boggs said.

When family lawyer Jim McGinnis read a June story in the Daily Report about a funding cut jeopardizing the survival of Fulton County Superior Court’s guardian ad litem program, he and his partner Leigh Cummings decided to help.

Their firm, Warner, Bates, McGough & McGinnis, is hosting a reception on Thursday to raise money for the program run by the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. It provides guardians ad litem pro bono to safeguard children’s interests in contested custody cases in Fulton County Superior Court when the parents can’t afford to pay for one.

“We read the article saying the program was strapped for cash and we’re trying to fill the gap,” said McGinnis. “I know how important guardians ad litem are. We use them every day.”

Fulton Superior Court, which handles the county’s divorces, asks AVLF for volunteer guardians ad litem to discern what’s best for the children when a judge needs more insight into what’s going on. It can be time-consuming work. The volunteers visit the children’s schools and homes and interview the children as well as their parents, teachers, neighbors, doctors and other people in their lives. McGinnis said fees for private guardians ad litem in divorces involving child custody can run from $5,000 to $25,000.

The pro bono program in May lost a $25,000 grant from Fulton County. It won a reprieve after the 20 judges on the Fulton Superior Court bench pitched in about $20,000 of their own money to keep the program going.

McGinnis said Warner, Bates, McGough & McGinnis is hoping to cover the difference with the fundraiser. Admission is $100, and the firm is providing food and drink. “There will be good food and cocktails,” said McGinnis, adding that Tom Catherall’s Here to Serve Restaurants is the caterer.

All are welcome. McGinnis said he’s sent out invitations to members of the family law bar and expects the family law judges on the Fulton Superior bench to attend.

All money raised will go to AVLF. The $100 contribution can also be deducted from the $300 cost of being a named host for AVLF’s fall winetasting fundraiser.

The fundraiser is August 23 at Warner Bates’ offices at 3350 Riverwood Parkway in the Riverwood 100 building. To RSVP, call the firm’s receptionist, Nancy Kanner, at 770-951-2700.

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When family lawyer Jim McGinnis read a June story in the Daily Report about a funding cut jeopardizing the survival of Fulton County Superior Court’s guardian ad litem program, he and his partner Leigh Cummings decided to help.
Their firm, Warner, Bates, McGough & McGinnis, is hosting a reception on Thursday to raise money for the program run by the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. It provides guardians ad litem pro bono to safeguard children’s interests in contested custody cases in Fulton County Superior Court when the parents can’t afford to pay for one.
“We read the article saying the program was strapped for cash and we’re trying to fill the gap,” said McGinnis. “I know how important guardians ad litem are. We use them every day.”
Fulton Superior Court, which handles the county’s divorces, asks AVLF for volunteer guardians ad litem to discern what’s best for the children when a judge needs more insight into what’s going on. It can be time-consuming work. The volunteers visit the children’s schools and homes and interview the children as well as their parents, teachers, neighbors, doctors and other people in their lives. McGinnis said fees for private guardians ad litem in divorces involving child custody can run from $5,000 to $25,000.
The pro bono program in May lost a $25,000 grant from Fulton County. It won a reprieve after the 20 judges on the Fulton Superior Court bench pitched in about $20,000 of their own money to keep the program going.
McGinnis said Warner, Bates, McGough & McGinnis is hoping to cover the difference with the fundraiser. Admission is $100, and the firm is providing food and drink. “There will be good food and cocktails,” said McGinnis, adding that Tom Catherall’s Here to Serve Restaurants is the caterer.
All are welcome. McGinnis said he’s sent out invitations to members of the family law bar and expects the family law judges on the Fulton Superior bench to attend.
All money raised will go to AVLF. The $100 contribution can also be deducted from the $300 cost of being a named host for AVLF’s fall winetasting fundraiser.
The fundraiser is August 23 at Warner Bates’ offices at 3350 Riverwood Parkway in the Riverwood 100 building. To RSVP, call the firm’s receptionist, Nancy Kanner, at 770-951-2700.

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Teams of juvenile court judges, school administrators, court staff and state child welfare workers will meet in LaGrange later this week for a workshop focused on boosting juvenile offenders’ chances of completing their education.

“As the current research reveals, a large proportion of young people known to the juvenile courts are in educational crisis and headed not for a life of opportunity but a life of failure, long-term physical and mental health challenges, and financial burden to society,” said the Judicial Council of Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts in a written statement.

The AOC said the workshop, which will take place July 19 and 20 at LaGrange College, is modeled after a school-justice partnership created by the AOC and the Georgia Department of Education to help the roughly 60,000 children and youth in the Georgia’s juvenile court systems finish high school or get a GED and possible attend college or a trade school.

“The goal of the project is to maximize the potential of each child in terms of that individual child’s education, social, artistic, athletic, and spiritual gifts,” the AOC said.