By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Livingston County has approved new attorney contracts for the 44th Circuit Court – Juvenile Division.

A non-competitive Request for Qualification (RFQu) bid process was recently performed with CoPro+, the county’s procurement partner. The search was for interested attorneys and/or firms that would be available to provide legal representation to minor children and parents in child protective proceedings, and respondent children in juvenile delinquent proceedings. In all, 13 responses were received, evaluated, and determined to be qualified by Chief Judge Michael Hatty, Chief Judge Miriam Cavanaugh, and Judge Matthew McGivney, Presiding Judge of the Family Division.

According to a memo sent to the Livingston County Board of Commissioners, based on the responses received along with the Court’s knowledge of many of the respondents, 10 of the 13 could be approved without further research. The other three were asked to take part in a mentoring program due to limited experience in their responses. Those three applicants all agreed. Five of the first 10 accepted have offered to serve as mentors. Funding for the Court Appointed Attorney contracts is available in the Juvenile Court General Fund budget, and is augmented by a Child and Parent Legal Representation Grant.

The new contracts will begin on March 1st and run through December 31st, with the option of up to 2 one-year renewals. The resolution also allows for the reopening of the RFQu and contracting of additional attorneys or firms at the discretion of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court.

The 13 accepted responses were from Samuel Bennet, Bennet Law Firm; Adrienne Brown (mentor program); Stacy Combs; Kevin Cummings; Steven Dodge; Paige Favio; Ashley Jacobson (mentor program); Kristina Knight; William Livingston; Cheryl Lopez, Lopez and Associates (mentor program); Kevin Nagle; Denoyer & Ostrowski PC; and Ameel Trabilsy II.