Study of Court-Appointed Counsel in Juvenile Dependency Proceedings

Welcome to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) site for Court-Appointed Counsel in Juvenile Dependency Proceedings.


A Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued on November 19, 2001. The AOC seeks to identify and retain a qualified contractor to work with staff to identify caseload standards for court-appointed counsel in juvenile dependency proceedings.

This RFP is the means for prospective service providers to submit their qualifications to the AOC and request selection as a service provider. The AOC will select, from the responses to the RFP, a consultant qualified to conduct a caseload study consisting of four primary components as follows:

  1. Attorney Performance Standard Development
    This component will involve a series of focus groups comprised of dependency attorneys, juvenile court judicial officers and appellate court justices, designed to identify required attorney activities and tasks at each stage of a juvenile dependency proceeding.

  2. Workload Study
    The workload study component will consist of a two-week period during which dependency attorneys statewide will record their time with respect to the activities and tasks identified during the performance standard development process. The primary goal of the workload study will be to understand the current practice activities, and the time associated with completing those activities, of court-appointed counsel statewide.

  3. Time Setting Focus Groups
    The purpose of this Study component will be to assign time to the activities and tasks identified during the performance standard development process. Two parallel series of time setting focus groups will be conducted, with one set of focus groups utilizing the results of the workload study in the time assignment process, and one set conducting time assignments blind to workload study results.

  4. Caseload Standard Identification
    Caseload standards will be derived from an analysis of the required set of attorney activities and tasks as identified during the performance standard development process, and the time assigned to those activities and tasks as identified by the time setting focus groups. Once caseload standards have been identified, contractor will work with AOC staff to determine the fiscal and practice implications of their adoption.


Request for Proposals are due on January 8, 2002, as identified on the RFPs cover page. Only written responses will be accepted. Responses should be sent by registered mail, certified mail, or hand delivered.

For further information regarding the RFP, please contact Leah Wilson, Senior Court Services Analyst, Administrative Office of the Courts, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, California, 94102. Telephone: 415-865-7977; Facsimile: 415-865-7217.

RFP for Study of Court-Appointed Counsel in Juvenile Dependency Proceedings


Study RFP, Bidders' Conference, 12/18/2001