Utah County's juvenile court system is growing too fast for its tax dollars to keep up.

Means said a full-time juvenile defenders office would cost the county about $750,000 a year. If the 4th District Juvenile Court adds a fifth judge, which is under discussion, the price tag would be even higher.

Utah County contracts with eight private attorneys to handle cases at the county's 4th District Juvenile Court, which has branches in Provo, American Fork and Orem. Those attorneys only work part-time on juvenile cases, with the rest of their time devoted to private practice. But over the past several years, the amount of time they devote to their contract work with the county has steadily increased.

"It, over the years, has evolved and evolved and evolved to the point where it's becoming the majority of their work," Means said.

About four years ago, the number of attorneys was increased from four to eight, with the intent that four of them would spend about 30 hours a week on juvenile court work and the other four would work about 15 hours a week.

Neil Skousen is from the latter group, and when he started doing juvenile contract work for Utah County three and a half years ago, he spent about 15 hours a week on it. These days, however, Skousen spends about 25 hours a week on juvenile court issues, he said, and others work 40 hours or more. "The contract was supposed to supplement the private attorneys' work. Instead, it's taking over most of our work, if not all of it," Skousen said. "The danger there is we're doing a disservice to our other clients ... that are paying us privately."

The public defenders office has 11 attorneys, as well as support staff. Means wants a juvenile defenders office modeled on his own, with four full-time attorneys and four contract attorneys to handle conflict-of-interest issues.

Only about 10 percent of the cases the juvenile defenders handle are related to juvenile delinquency, Means said. The other 90 percent usually involve situations where the state has stepped in between parents and their children. Often times, both parents need separate attorneys, creating the need for the four contract attorneys Means wants in a full-time office.

County Commissioner Gary Anderson, an attorney who used to do juvenile court work for the county, recognizes the need for a full-time juvenile defenders office. But the money just isn't there, he said.

"We've done a bunch of things, changed things around without raising taxes, and we're trying to do the same thing with this. But the price tag is so high that as yet we haven't been able to figure out how to do it," Anderson said. "Someday we're just going to have to, but at this point it's just prohibitive on the price."

Without a private practice to worry about, the attorneys would be able to handle juvenile cases more efficiently, Means said, and they would be able to specialize in such cases.

Also, Means said, the office would have the same team mentality that the Utah County Public Defender Association has. Under the current system, juvenile cases are handled by eight individual attorneys with separate offices. Those attorneys may have cordial relationships, Means said, but they lack the tight-knit working relationships and cooperation present in his office.

"It is better, I think, if you have a team approach. There's support, there's the ability to be able to walk down the hall and ask a question, [there's] mentoring," Means said. "A new person comes into this office here, he's got 10 other people to ask a question if he runs into a case that he's unsure of. On any given day he's in court with four or five other people he can consult with at a moment's notice."

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