From the County Courts at Law to the Brazoria Co. Bar Association:

Dear Members of the Brazoria County Bar Association,

For those of you who practice criminal law and are on the rotation for appointments, please consider the following opportunity.  As you know, we maintain a “wheel” system for juvenile appointments as well.  Only those certified as handling felony cases on the wheel can handle juvenile felony matters.  Likewise, those approved for misdemeanors can handle juvenile misdemeanors.  

The judges take juvenile cases very seriously and I believe it often takes more experience to handle those types of cases than, at times, adult cases. You need to have working-knowledge of criminal law, criminal procedure, the Family Code, as it applies to juveniles, and even Rules of Civil Procedure.  At present, we also maintain an attorney for the day system for attorneys who are willing to handle the straight forward matters as an attorney for the day.  For example, in my court, they are in the dockets only for misdemeanors and straight forward matters.  Families are still encouraged to seek court-appointed or retained attorneys. 

We are attempting to compile a list of attorneys who are willing to serve as attorneys for the day, paid on an hourly rate within the plan. Those same attorneys also contribute their time to detention hearings.  Detention hearings are similarly paid. If you are interested in serving as an attorney for the day or detention hearings, visit with myself or other judges to see how they handle things.  The same basic idea may apply to each court, but the manner and means may change court to court.

I thank you in advance for your consideration of this issue.

 

Marc W. Holder,

Judge, CCL #2

Juvenile Chair