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Rule 13 (subdivisions A to D): the court may appoint private counsel to represent the interests of the child in a custody or visitation proceeding where in the child’s best interest (Family Code section 3150(a)) (13(A)); counsel an active member in good standing of the State Bar of California with professional liability insurance or adequately self-insured (13(B)); at least 12 hours of education and training within one (1) year before the statement of compliance (no more than six (6) hours self-study), at least six (6) child custody proceedings within the preceding five (5) years (at least two (2) contested family law, no more than three (3) dependency or guardianship), a minimum of eight (8) hours of continuing education each calendar year (California Rules of Court, rule 5.242(c)), form FL-322, Declaration of Counsel for a Child Regarding Qualifications, and a new statement of compliance on form FL-322 on or before February 28 of the third year and every third year thereafter with certificates of completion, the court’s public list of attorneys, and 20 days from the mailing of a notice that the attorney will be decertified to submit evidence (13(C)); and counsel’s rights (Family Code sections 3111, 3151, 3151.5, 3153, Welfare and Institutions Code section 827) and duties under Family Code section 3151(a)-(b) and rule 5.242 - interviewing the child, reviewing the court files and records, further investigations, participating in the proceeding, and, if the child is called to testify, allowing the child to state a preference and advising the child about the court process (13(D)).
California > Third Appellate District > Lassen County > Superior Court of California, County of Lassen
RULE OF COURT NO. 13 STANDARDS FOR COURT APPOINTED COUNSEL FOR MINOR CHILDREN IN FAMILY LAW PROCEEDINGS A. PURPOSE OF APPOINTMENT AS COUNSEL FOR A CHILD IN FAMILY LAW PROCEEDINGS. Pursuant to Family Code section 3150(a), if the court determines that it would be in the best interest of the minor child, the court may appoint private counsel to represent the interests of the child in a custody or visitation proceeding. B. BASIC ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR APPOINTMENT. To be eligible for appointment as counsel for a child, counsel must: (1) Be an active member in good standing of the State Bar of California; (2) Have professional liability insurance or demonstrate to the court that he or she is adequately self-insured; and (3) Meet the education, experience, and continuing education requirements of this rule. C. EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS. (1) Education. Prior to appointment as counsel for a child in a family law proceeding, counsel must have completed within one (1) year prior to submitting a statement of compliance at least 12 hours of applicable education and training which must include all of the following subjects: (a) Statutes, rules of court, and case law relating to child custody and visitation litigation; (b) Representation of a child in custody and visitation proceedings; and (c) Stages of child development; communicating with children at various stages of development; recognizing and understanding the effects of child abuse, neglect, and family violence on children; and how to work effectively with multidisciplinary experts. No more than six (6) hours of the initial training may be self-verified self-study education. The attorney’s own record of self-study must include, as appropriate, the titles and providers of material used, the amount of hours claimed for the education activities, and the dates on which the attorney engaged in the activities. (2) Experience. Court appointed counsel for minor children under this rule must have represented a party or a child in at least six (6) proceedings involving child custody within the preceding five (5) years as follows: (a) At least two (2) of the six (6) proceedings must have involved contested child custody and visitation issues in family law; and (b) No more than three (3) of the six (6) proceedings can involve child custody proceedings in dependency or guardianship cases. (3) Continuing education. Court appointed counsel for minor children under this rule must complete during each calendar year a minimum of eight (8) hours of applicable education and training of the subjects listed in California Rules of Court, rule 5.242(c). (4) Compliance with appointment requirements. (a) Prior to becoming eligible for appointment as counsel for minor children, attorneys satisfying the preliminary educational and experience requirements must submit to the court a statement of compliance in the form of a declaration indicating compliance with the requirements of this rule. Counsel must use form FL-322, Declaration of Counsel for a Child Regarding Qualifications for this purpose. (b) On or before February 28 on the third year after the year in which the attorney is first certified and then every third year thereafter, attorneys eligible for family law appointment must submit a new statement of compliance. The new statement of compliance must include a statement that the attorney has completed an annual minimum of eight (8) hours per year of applicable education and training. Form FL-322, Declaration of Counsel for a Child Regarding Qualifications, must be used for the purpose of submitting a new statement of compliance. As evidence of completing the minimum of eight (8) hours per year of continuing education required by this rule, the attorney shall attach certificates of completion to the new statement of compliance. Certificates of completion must include the name of the courses, course descriptions, where courses were offered, number of hours of training attended, dates of the training, and the names of the training providers. (c) The court will maintain and make available to the public a list of those attorneys who have submitted a statement of compliance from which counsel will be appointed, and shall appoint counsel from said list. The list must contain the name, address, telephone number of the attorney, and the date of receipt of the attorney’s statement of compliance. Attorneys failing to timely submit a statement of compliance with continuing education requirements by February 28th of the year in which it is due will be notified by the court that he or she will be decertified. The attorney shall be permitted to have 20 days from the day of mailing of the notice to submit evidence of his or her completion of the required training or education. If the attorney fails to submit the required evidence, the attorney will be removed from the eligibility list maintained by the court D. RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF COUNSEL FOR A CHILD. (1) Rights. Counsel representing a child has rights relating to the representation of a child’s best interest under Family Code sections 3111, 3151, 3151.5, 3153, and Welfare and Institutions Code section 827. (2) Responsibilities of counsel for a child. Counsel representing a child is charged with representing the best interest of the child. The role of the child’s counsel is to gather evidence that bear on the best interest of the child and to present that admissible evidence, in addition to the child’s wishes if the child so desires, to the court in any manner deemed appropriate by the child’s counsel. Counsel’s duties include those under Family Code section 3151(a)-(b) and California Rules of Court, rule 5.242: (a) Interviewing the child; (b) Reviewing the court files and all accessible relevant records available to both parties; (c) Making any further investigations that counsel considers necessary to ascertain the evidence relevant to the custody or visitation hearings; (d) Participating in the proceeding to the degree necessary to adequately represent the child; and (e) If the child is called to testify in the proceeding: (i) Allowing the child to state a preference regarding custody or visitation, informing the parties about the child’s desire to provide input, and establishing procedures in furtherance of the child’s participation; (ii) Appropriately advising the child about the court process, including confidentiality limitations and the possibility of a court record of the testimony which may be provided to other parties. (Effective 1/1/09, as amended 1/1/13)
RULE OF COURT NO. 13 STANDARDS FOR COURT APPOINTED COUNSEL FOR MINOR CHILDREN IN FAMILY LAW PROCEEDINGS A. PURPOSE OF APPOINTMENT AS COUNSEL FOR A CHILD IN FAMILY LAW PROCEEDINGS. Pursuant to Family Code section 3150(a), if the court determines that it would be in the best interest of the minor child, the court may appoint private counsel to represent the interests of the child in a custody or vis
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-10-12 (California T4 Lassen build 2026-10-12) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-lassen/docs/local-rules/local-rules-court-effective-july-1-2026.pdf (the court's rule book, its cover “SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LASSEN LOCAL RULES OF COURT Effective July 1, 2026”, as fetched 2026-10-12; 902440 bytes, sha256 b04136070555eb679f27e6020412087f261a95fe203b285fa7225070791bc2b4; 112 pages; this rule PDF pages 71 to 73, printed pages 71 to 73) with the shared verbatim composer (v2 reflow): the rules (PDF pages 5 to 100, printed 5 to 100) composed as one text and cut at the nineteen headings “RULE OF COURT NO. 1” to “RULE OF COURT NO. 19”, each matched once as a whole line (a rule may begin mid-page); the running header of every page (“Superior Court of California, County of Lassen”) and its running footer (“Local Rules of Court”, “Rev. 7/1/26”, “www.Lassen.Courts.CA.gov” and the page number), each named and a whole line in its band, removed as chrome - 480 chrome lines; lines reflowed into the rules' paragraphs, each rule's heading and title, each numbered rule (“6.1 TELEPHONIC APPEARANCE RULE.”), each lettered or numbered subdivision starting a line, a line in capitals ending its paragraph, and each history line (“(Effective ...)”) on a line of its own; the strike report (review/strike-report-2026-10-12.txt) finds no struck run on the book's 112 pages; no table on the rule pages; 9 whitespace-only fixes (build/book-fixes.json: Rule 1's “At-Issue” / “Memorandum” sentence rejoined; Rule 7(B)'s excepted case types set row by row, their cells left to right; Rule 15.7(c)'s complaint addresses and Rule 19.3(g)'s claims address each set one printed line to a line; two pairs of Rule 19.4(a)'s fee lines set apart); the vertical-gap, short-line, page-break, bold, false-break, fragment and row audits (custody file book_extra_audits.py; review/book-extra-audits-2026-10-12.txt and review/book-audits-after-fixes-2026-10-12.txt) list candidates read one by one (build/book_fixes.py) - the rest kept as printed (list items without closing punctuation, the run-in bold headings of Rule 19.4(b) and (d), the “OR” lines between alternatives); proof 1 (whitespace-only) and proof 2 (same character multiset as the text layer minus chrome) pass. The cover (PDF page 1), the table of contents (2 to 4), the alphabetical subject index (101 to 110) and the two appendices of local forms (111 and 112) belong to no card.
Division XI: information forms for data processing (Rule 11.2); required action - action taken on all calendared cases and a future date always set (Rule 11.19); and pro tem judges - an attorney named as a plaintiff in a civil or small claims case may not sit as a judge pro-tem during the case or within six months following its resolution, nor one named as a defendant in two or more such cases (Rule 11.22). Rules 11.1, 11.3 to 11.5, 11.7 to 11.18, 11.20 and 11.21 are repealed, and Rule 11.6 (voluntary arbitration; see Local Rule 10.2) was repealed and renumbered.
Duval County's indigent-defense and magistration rules under the Texas Fair Defense Act (S.B. 7): who may be booked into the county jail and on what paper; arrest-case numbering; presentment to a magistrate within 48 hours (art. 15.16); the magistrate's warnings, counsel inquiry, interpreter duty, indigence determination and appointment of counsel within 24 hours of a request; the alternative appointment plan under art. 26.04(g)-(h) with annual applications, seven attorney categories (capital, first and second degree, third degree/state jail/misdemeanor, competency, appeals, post-conviction, extradition), CLE and experience standards, random rotation within each category, written acceptance within 48 hours, first contact by the end of the next working day, replacement and suspension of counsel, fee applications within five days of completing services and the compensation attachment ($500 pleas; $175/$150 hourly; $1,400 per jury-trial day; appellate caps); bail schedules by offense class with a personal bond office (fee $20 or 3%), pre-trial supervision and revocation hearings within two working days; arraignment settings and notice; repeal of conflicting rules.