New Rules of Juvenile Procedure part of Court’s continuing focus on children

The West Virginia Lawyer

Supreme Court Chief Justice Robin Jean Davis

May 2010

New Rules of Juvenile Procedure part of Court’s continuing focus on children

On July 1 West Virginia’s first-ever Rules of Juvenile Procedure went into effect. The new rules are the culmination of several years’ of work by the Court and the West Virginia Court Improvement Program Board, particularly a committee led by Williamson attorney Jane Moran.

A copy of the rules is posted on the Supreme Court website at www.state.wv.us/wvsca/Rules/Juvenile_Procedure_Rules.pdf.

The rules don’t make substantive law changes. Instead, they are a synthesis of the state's existing juvenile statutes and case law, including recognized constitutional principles. With necessary procedural steps added, they are a comprehensive roadmap.
Several years ago the Court adopted Rules of Procedure for Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings, and those rules have been an enormous help in improving the quality and timeliness of results in those cases. Ms. Moran’s Youth Services Committee believed a similar set of rules for delinquency/status offense cases would bring about similar benefits, and that is the main purpose of this comprehensive set of rules.

The Rules of Juvenile Procedure are part of the Supreme Court’s continuing efforts to improve the way the West Virginia court system handles cases involving our youngest citizens. The Court is grateful to The Court Improvement Program Board, which is led by Twenty-Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Gary Johnson, for its continued assistance.

The Youth Services Committee of that Board has spent much of the last five years researching, drafting, and revising the document that has now become the Rules of Juvenile Procedure.

Historically, the Court Improvement Board’s main focus has been on improving the way the court system handles abuse and neglect cases. The Board’s central purpose is to improve court-related practices affecting children and youth placed out of their homes in foster care, which includes many in the juvenile court system. Additionally, many children who are the victim of abuse and neglect later end up in juvenile court, so it was a natural next step to look at juvenile practice rules.

The rules are designed to protect the statutory and constitutional rights of juveniles, promote access to rehabilitative opportunities, and at the same time preserve public safety.

Ms. Moran and others on her committee felt that the lack of a cohesive set of juvenile practice rules led to a lack of responsiveness to the unique needs and diverse nature of juvenile offenders. Insufficient procedural protections sometimes led to unnecessary detention. The new rules also should help ensure that where detention is necessary, it is the minimum required for the safety of juveniles and protection of the public.

The rules generally progress in chronological order like a typical juvenile case would progress through the court system.

The most significant change from previous practice is the focus on the many children who are in the juvenile system a long time and need to be better prepared for independence when they “age out” of the system. Status offenders leave the system when they turn eighteen. Juvenile delinquent offenders can remain under court jurisdiction until they are twenty-one, in some circumstances.

Ms. Moran should be recognized for understanding the importance of this problem. The rules that address this issue specifically are Rules 45, 46, and 51. Other rules that are designed to improve the system for older juveniles are Rules 35, 26, 37, 40, and 43.

Beyond the limited funding of the Chafee Independent Living Program, the federal government now recognizes that more needs to be done to prepare these juveniles for adulthood while they’re still in a state’s care. The federal Fostering Connections to Success Act that passed in 2008 requires states to address education stability in a juvenile’s case plan and assist a juvenile aging out of foster care to develop a transition plan. Those issues and others are encompassed in the Juvenile Rules and should help the state be eligible for additional Title IV-E federal funding. Those funds can be used to pay for certain out-of-home placements, if federal procedural requirements are followed.

The members of Ms. Moran’s Committee are: Judge Donald H. Cookman, Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit (Hampshire, Hardy, and Pendleton Counties); Denny Dodson, Deputy Director, West Virginia Division of Juvenile Services; Sue Hage, Program Manager for Regulatory Management, Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Children & Families; John M. Hedges, Morgantown attorney; Will Jones, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Children & Families; Mike Lacy, Director of Probation Services for the Supreme Court of Appeals Administrative Office; Robert Noone, a Logan attorney; Sandra Prather, Youth Services Policy Specialist, Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Children & Families; Jack Rogers, Executive Director, West Virginia Public Defender Services; Angela Saunders, Director of Court Services for the Supreme Court of Appeals Administrative Office; Mary Ann Scali, Deputy Director, National Juvenile Defender Center; Robin Walker Sterling, special counsel, National Juvenile Defender Center; John Sullivan, Defense Attorney, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (Kanawha County) Public Defender’s Office; Tom Truman, Chief Deputy Prosecutor in Raleigh County; Robert Wilkinson, Chief Defense Attorney in the Sixth Judicial Circuit (Cabell County) Public Defender’s Office.

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