A Sioux City attorney assigned by a judge to represent a child in the court system back in 2003 has lost her bid to have the state pay her entire bill for the legal work. Attorney Elizabeth Rosenbaum was appointed to represent the interests of a child who was declared "in need of assistance" by the state. It means the legal proceedings dealt with either placing the child in foster care or terminating the biological parents’ rights to be the caretaker for child.
Rosenbaum, an independent operator who was not at the time under contract with the state to handle these kind of cases, submitted her bill to the State Public Defender’s office. The agency paid only as much as was paid to attorneys under state contract to handle such cases.
The juvenile court ordered the Public Defender to pay Rosenbaum’s entire bill, but the Iowa Supreme Court now has ruled the state doesn’t have to because the Sioux City attorney should have filed papers — while she was working on the case — indicating her bill was poised to exceed the normal limits. Rosenbaum’s initial bill was nearly 22-hundred dollars. The State Public Defender’s Office paid her just about half that much.