(a) The Judicial Council shall establish a program to collect reimbursements from the person liable for the costs of counsel appointed to represent parents or minors pursuant to Section 903.1 in dependency proceedings.
(1) As part of the program, the Judicial Council shall:
(A) Adopt a statewide standard for determining the ability to pay reimbursements for counsel, which shall at a minimum include the family’s income, their necessary obligations, the number of individuals dependent on this income, and the cost-effectiveness of the program.
(B) Adopt policies and procedures allowing a court to recover from the money collected the costs associated with implementing the reimbursements program. The policies and procedures shall at a minimum limit the amount of money a court may recover to a reasonable proportion of the reimbursements collected and provide the terms and conditions under which a court may use a third party to collect reimbursements. For the purposes of this subparagraph, “costs associated with implementing the reimbursements program” means the court costs of assessing a parent’s ability to pay for court-appointed counsel and the costs to collect delinquent reimbursements.
(2) The money collected shall be deposited as required by Section 68085.1 of the Government Code. Except as otherwise authorized by law, the money collected under this program shall be utilized to reduce caseloads, for attorneys appointed by the court, to the caseload standard approved by the Judicial Council. Priority shall be given to those courts with the highest attorney caseloads that also demonstrate the ability to immediately improve outcomes for parents and children as a result of lower attorney caseloads.
(b) The court may do either of the following:
(1) Designate a court financial evaluation officer to make financial evaluations of liability for reimbursement pursuant to Section 903.1.
(2) With the consent of the county and pursuant to the terms and conditions agreed upon by the court and county, designate a county financial evaluation officer to make financial evaluations of liability for reimbursement pursuant to Section 903.1.
(c) In handling reimbursement of payments pursuant to Section 903.1, the court financial evaluation officer and the county financial evaluation officer shall follow the procedures set forth for county financial evaluation officers in subdivisions (b), (c), and (d) of Section 903.45.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 308, Sec. 13. (SB 647) Effective January 1, 2012.)