Wyo. Code R. 008-0001-1
Effective Date: 02/04/2013 to Current
Rule Type: Current Rules & Regulations
Reference Number: 008.0001.1.02042013
These rules are promulgated by the Office of the Wyoming State Public Defender (“Office”) pursuant to Wyoming Statutes §§ 14-12-101 through 14-12-104, and the Wyoming Administrative Procedures Act at W.S. 16-3-101, et seq.
(a) The purpose of the Guardians Ad Litem Program (“Program”) is to contract with, supervise and manage attorneys providing legal representation as guardians ad litem in child protection cases under WYO. STAT. ANN. §§ 14-3-101 through 14-3-440, children in need of supervision cases under WYO. STAT. ANN. §§ 14-6-401 through 14-6-440, or termination of parental rights (“TPRs”) actions under WYO. STAT. ANN §§ 14-2-308 through 14-2-319 brought as a result of a child protection or children in need of supervision action. The Program and these Rules apply only to these three types of juvenile actions and proceedings and any appeals that arise from these proceedings. The Program does not apply to a juvenile delinquency proceeding except that an attorney appointed to serve only as a guardian ad litem in a case in which a child has been charged with the commission of a delinquent act may, subject to these Rules, be eligible for compensation under the Program. In such a situation, these Rules would then apply to that guardian ad litem and his or her GAL representation of the alleged delinquent child.
(b) The Office may issue policies, manuals, bulletins, or other documentation interpreting the provisions of these rules and regulations. All policies, manuals, bulletins and other documentation shall be consistent with and reflect the policies contained in these rules and regulations. The provisions contained in such documentation shall be interpreted in favor of these rules and regulations.
Citation to these rules shall be “Wyoming Guardians Ad Litem Program Rules and Regulations,” or more simply “GAL Rules.”
(a) The following excerpts from the National Association of Counsel for Children’s (NACC) NACC Recommendations for Representation of Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases (2001, available at www.naccchildlaw.org) are adopted by the Office as the policy guidelines of the Program:
(i) Each child is valued as a unique human being, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, age, social class, physical or mental disability, gender, or sexual orientation.
(ii) Each child is vested with certain fundamental rights, including a right to physical and emotional health and safety. In order to achieve this, we must promote legal rights and remedies for children, including empowering children by ensuring that courts hear and consider their views in proceedings that affect their lives.
(iii) Every child subject to a child protection proceeding must be provided an independent, competent, and zealous attorney, trained in the law of child protection and the art of trial advocacy, with time and resources to handle the case.
(iv) Children’s attorneys play a critical role in empowering children and ensuring that children’s views are heard in legal proceedings. Outcomes in our adversarial process are directly tied to the quality of legal representation. Additionally, the presence of children’s attorneys is critical to ensuring the timeliness of proceedings.
(v) Children’s attorneys play a critical role in advocating for permanency and for the continuation of familial relationships, family preservation and family and community placements where appropriate. The attorney must advocate for timely resolution and permanent resolution (absent compelling reasons to the contrary) of the case. The attorney must advocate for food, shelter, clothing, and safety, including a safe temporary placement where necessary and for educational, medical, mental health, and dental needs. Where appropriate, the attorney should advocate for continuation of appropriate familial relationships, family preservation services and against out-of-home placements.
(b) As NACC has found, attorneys representing children should have a combination of knowledge, training, experience, and ability which allow them to effectively discharge their duties to their children clients. To that end the Office will develop reasonable and enforceable rules for the provision of quality GAL services to children in all types of cases handled by the GALs.
(c) The Program and all Program GALs shall embody these policies and strive to fulfill those ideals. The child’s attorney should not be merely a fact-finder, but rather, should zealously advocate a position on behalf of the child. In furtherance of that advocacy, the child’s attorney must be adequately prepared prior to hearings. The attorney’s presence at and active participation in all hearings is absolutely critical.
The Office shall fully implement the intent of the legislature in enacting Wyoming Statutes §§ 14-12-101 through 14-12-104. As compensation from the Guardians Ad Litem Program may be available only as funds are provided by the Wyoming Legislature, the Program will be administered to fully utilize the authorized funds. The State Public Defender or her designee is the final authority in administering and operating the Guardians Ad Litem Program.
(a) Terminology. Except as otherwise specified, the terminology used in this chapter is the standard terminology and has the standard meaning used in all legal settings and contexts.
The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of these rules. Where the context in which words are used in these rules indicates that such is the intent, words in the singular number shall include the plural and vice versa. Throughout these rules, gender pronouns are used interchangeably, except where the context dictates otherwise. The drafters have attempted to utilize each gender pronoun in equal numbers, in random distribution. Words in each gender shall include individuals of the other gender.
(a) 'Best interests.' Refers to a determination of the most appropriate course of action based on objective considerations of the child's specific needs and preferences. The determination of the best interests of the child should be based on objective criteria as set forth in the law that are related to the purposes of the proceedings. The criteria should address the child's specific needs and preferences, the goal of expeditious resolution of the case so the child can remain or return home or be placed in a safe, nurturing, and permanent environment, and the use of the least restrictive alternatives available. This determination must include the presumption that it is in the child's best interest to be with his or her parent(s), as outlined by the Wyoming Supreme Court per In re Guardianship of MEO, 2006 WY 87, 138 P.3d 1145 (Wyo. 2006).
(b) 'Caseload.' Refers to the number of juvenile clients an attorney guardian ad litem has been appointed to represent in an open juvenile case. Caseload will be counted by clients, not cases, so if a case has three children, it will be counted three times.
(c) 'Compensation.' Means money or other recompense given directly for the attorney guardian ad litem services provided and performed pursuant to the Program.
(d) 'Contract.' Refers to the contract between an individual attorney and the Office, whereby the individual attorney promises to provide guardian ad litem services to the Program, pursuant to these Rules, Office policy, pertinent court rules and statutes, and the contract itself, in exchange for a certain rate or amount of money to be paid by the Office through the Program.
(e) 'Deputy Director.' Refers to the Wyoming Guardians Ad Litem Program Administrator, an attorney employed by the Office of the State Public Defender to oversee the Program as a Deputy Director of the Office, the State Public Defender's agent for the GAL Program, in order to avoid conflicts between the two divisions of the Office of the State Public Defender. The Deputy Director is also charged with acting as the Chief Financial Officer of the GAL Program to avoid any conflict between the GAL Program and the Office.
(f) 'Full-time.' Refers to a one hundred percent (100%), full-time contract or employment. Means an employee or contractor is obligated to expend all of his work-time exclusively for the Office or the Program, and may not be employed with or contracted by another entity.
(g) “Funding.” State funds appropriated and available to pay for guardian ad litem services. Funding does not include any other funds available to the Office that are not designated and appropriated for guardian ad litem services.
(h) “GAL.” Refers to attorney guardian, or guardians ad litem, who is, or are, certified by the Program Deputy Director to furnish guardian ad litem services and who have contracted with or who are employed by the Office to provide such services.
(i) “GAL Panel.” Refers to the list maintained by the Program Deputy Director and posted on the Program website of all attorneys certified and contracted with or employed by the Office to provide GAL services.
(j) “GAL Services.” Refers to the legal representation the GAL provides to the child client and all that is required to effectively and zealously represent the client including, but not limited to, the use of experts; investigation of discovery and records; and use of interpreters to communicate with the client.
(k) “Office.” The Office of the Wyoming State Public Defender, its agent, designee, or successor.
(l) “Part-time.” Refers to less than a full-time contract or full-time employment. Any contract or employment whereby the contractor is not obligated to exclusively and entirely perform his services only for the Office or Program. Part-time does not necessarily mean “half-time.” The contract between the contractor and the Office defines and determines its duration and quantity.
(m) “Permanency Attorney.” A GAL attorney employed or contracted with the Program to represent clients in termination of parental rights (TPR) and appellate proceedings. This attorney shall work closely with the GAL on the underlying juvenile matter while representing the client in the TPR or appellate proceeding.
(n) “Program.” The Wyoming Guardians Ad Litem Program codified pursuant to Wyoming Statutes §§ 14-12-101 through 14-12-104.
(o) “Rules.” Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, “Rules” means the Office of the Wyoming State Public Defender Guardians Ad Litem Program Rules and Regulations, of which this chapter is a part.
(p) “Shelter care hearing.” Means a hearing regarding the temporary care of a child in physically nonrestrictive facilities pending court disposition or execution of a court order for placement or commitment.
(q) “Supervisor.” Means an attorney who is a Guardian Ad Litem Program Supervisor.
(r) “TPR.” Refers to a termination of parental rights proceeding.
(a) The Office shall provide necessary administrative support and oversight for the Program. The Program Deputy Director, any supervisory attorney guardians ad litem, and the Permanency Attorney are authorized and may attend all proceedings in an action, including closed proceedings, to assess performance, oversee, or assist an attorney guardian ad litem, unless a conflict of interest exists.
(b) The Office shall require any attorney who seeks to contract with or be employed by the Office for legal representation of children as a guardian ad litem to meet the standards for guardians ad litem established by the Office, the Program and the Program Deputy Director.
(c) The Office shall, in its discretion, set standard fee schedules for guardian ad litem services.
(d) The Program and the Program Deputy Director shall ensure that the attorney guardians’ ad litem advice remains independent of private providers and the judicial system and, pursuant to Wyoming Statutes, that their recommendations consider cost impacts and savings to the state of Wyoming.
(e) Utilizing Program staff and supervising attorneys in each Program District, the Program will find a guardian ad litem available to take a new case and appear at the shelter care/detention hearing, upon notice from the Judge or County/District Attorney.
(i) If the court appoints the Program as the representative guardian ad litem, the Program, and therefore the Program Deputy Director, is the “attorney of record” and the Program shall assign the case to a guardian ad litem.
(ii) Any attorney appointed by the court, outside of the Program Deputy Director and not on the Program’s Panel, will not be reimbursed or compensated by the Office.
(iii) Nothing herein precludes the Program from appointing the University of Wyoming College of Law Clinics to a case. The clinic students serve as GALs under the direct supervision of a faculty supervisor and do not charge legal fees for their services.
(f) The Office and the Program shall establish joint protocols/policies to determine and resolve conflicts of interest. These protocols shall ensure that the Program will be, and will remain, separate and distinct from the Public Defender’s Criminal Defense and Juvenile Delinquency division(s), whose functions are outlined in the Public Defender Act (WYO. STAT. ANN. §§ 7-6-101 et. seq).
(g) The Office may negotiate and enter into contracts or memoranda of understanding with any individual or entity as necessary or convenient to facilitate the Office's duties under this Program and to adequately and sufficiently maintain, operate, and administer the Program.
(h) Each GAL on the GAL Panel will be evaluated yearly by the Program Deputy Director, the District Court Judges before whom they regularly appear, and any other stakeholders the Program may identify. Said evaluations will be considered when renewing contracts each year.
(i) The State Legislature has appropriated general fund monies to the Office each biennium for administration and operation of the Program. This appropriation shall only be expended for the purpose of administering the Program and providing GAL legal services to clients. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert at the end of each biennium as provided by law. A request for this appropriation shall be included in the Office's standard biennial budget requests.
A full-time attorney GAL shall not engage in private practice except to complete business pending at time of his/her employment or contract. A full-time GAL shall devote his/her full-time to performing GAL services as directed by the Deputy Director and is supervised by the Deputy Director.
All information provided to the Program staff and GALs shall be confidential and shall not be released or admitted in a court proceeding unless otherwise ordered by a court. In no event shall communications between a child and the child's GAL be admitted, without the child's informed consent, even if that information has been provided to Program staff. In a case where a child is unable to give 'informed consent' to such a release of privileged communication, the decision of whether to waive the attorney-client privilege is reserved to the GAL. Finally, under Rule 1.6(b) of the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct, a GAL may reveal confidential information relating to the representation, without informed consent, to the extent the GAL reasonably believes it is necessary to protect the best interests of the client.
The protections provided by these Rules do not exclude any protection or sanction that the law otherwise provides.
(a) The order in which the provisions of the chapters of these Rules appear is not to be construed to mean that any one provision is more or less important than any other provision.
(b) The text of the chapters of these Rules shall control the titles of its various provisions.
The chapters of these Rules supersedes all prior rules or policy statements issued by the Office, which may be inconsistent with the chapters of these Rules.
If any portion of the chapters of these Rules is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder shall continue in full force and effect.