ALBANY — Efforts to make the state financially responsible for indigent criminal defense in New York are overlooking the considerable public resources needed to represent litigants in Family Court, a legal services official said.
The state Court of Appeals’ 1972 ruling in Matter of Ella B., 30 NY2d 352, required that indigent parents be assigned counsel in child neglect proceedings. Over time, that obligation has been codified in the Family Court Act and other state statutes to providing counsel at taxpayer expense for indigent litigants in any Family Court proceeding involving the removal of a child from a household, as well as support orders, custody disputes and similar matters where parental rights are at stake.
