{"id":23484,"date":"2018-02-28T16:30:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T22:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23484"},"modified":"2018-02-28T16:30:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T22:30:06","slug":"bill-that-would-ensure-statewide-legal-representation-for-juveniles-debated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23484","title":{"rendered":"Bill that would ensure statewide legal representation for juveniles debated"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill ensuring that all Nebraska juveniles appearing in court could have legal representation was debated by lawmakers Feb. 26-28.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB158, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, legal counsel would be appointed each time a juvenile court petition is filed. The juvenile and his or her parent or guardian would be informed of the right to retain such counsel as needed.<\/p>\n

The bill also would require any legal counsel representing a juvenile to continue representation through post-dispositional proceedings unless the juvenile requests new counsel.<\/p>\n

Senators passed legislation in 2016 ensuring that juveniles in counties with a population greater than 150,000 would be guaranteed access to counsel. LB158 would expand that legislation to cover juveniles in every county.<\/p>\n

Juveniles waive their right to counsel at excessively high rates, Pansing Brooks said, which puts them at particular risk because juvenile court judges have the authority to place a child in detention for any crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a child to wander the abyss of the juvenile justice system and understand procedural, strategic and legal matters all on their own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A pending Judiciary Committee amendment would clarify that a juvenile who waives the right to counsel could rescind the waiver at any time. It also would clarify that counsel need not be appointed for a juvenile who participates in a pre-trial diversion program.<\/p>\n

Pansing Brooks also filed an amendment that would create a Juvenile Indigent Defense Fund to provide grants to counties to cover the cost of providing legal counsel to indigent juveniles. This would be funded by a $1 increase in court filing fees.<\/p>\n

Supporting the measure was Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, who said access to counsel is critical for a juvenile to make informed decisions that could have lifelong consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not take away the right of a juvenile to waive counsel, but it does say that a juvenile may need help making that decision,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are consequences to these decisions that a juvenile needs to understand and a 14-year-old is not going to know the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld also supported the bill. Most adults do not fully understand their legal rights, he said, let alone a young person who has never interacted with the legal system.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people should have the right to counsel when their liberties and freedom are likely going to be taken away,\u201d Morfeld said. \u201cGiven the status of a young person and not fully knowing their rights \u2026 we should put them at an even higher protective status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte introduced a motion to bracket the bill until April 18, 2018. He said Nebraska already has strong provisions in place to protect a juvenile\u2019s right to counsel. Requiring every juvenile to have counsel would force county budgets to the breaking point, Groene said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo juveniles are being denied a lawyer if they want one,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we are pricing justice to the point that it\u2019s not affordable to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids must learn that if they make a bad decision, there will be consequences, said Henderson Sen. Curt Friesen in support of the bracket motion. The bill would remove parents from critical decisions, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my child is taken into custody and put into the court system and they appoint an attorney, I no longer have a say in it,\u201d Friesen said. \u201cMy child and his attorney don\u2019t have to listen to my advice or my attorney\u2019s advice and that troubles me as a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crete Sen. Laura Ebke said constitutional rights never should be subsumed by money. Protecting a juvenile\u2019s rights is more important than concerns about the financial cost to counties, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents don\u2019t have the right, I believe, to take away their child\u2019s constitutional rights,\u201d Ebke said. \u201cWe can argue about how we\u2019re going to pay for this, but that\u2019s the lesser argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Legislature moved to the next item on the agenda without taking action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill ensuring that all Nebraska juveniles appearing in court could have legal representation was debated by lawmakers Feb. 26-28.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-23484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-patty-pansing-brooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/LB158PansingBrooks2-26-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23485,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23484\/revisions\/23485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}