D.C.’s chief judge has issued strict new rules governing the conduct of lawyers who handle cases involving special-needs kids in the city’s schools.
Under Chief Judge Lee Satterfield’s regulations, lawyers will have to complete at least 16 hours of specialized training, prove that they’re in good standing with the D.C. Bar, submit to continuing education seminars and follow a rigid code of conduct on topics ranging from case management to ensuring that the children’s parents, not the lawyers, make decisions affecting a child’s education.
The rules are the first of their kind in the District governing special-education lawyers, who have turned what in other jurisdictions is a quiet practice area into a multimillion-dollar industry in the nation’s capital. For decades, D.C. school officials have regularly missed federal deadlines on testing and treating kids with disabilities. That has allowed lawyers to bill the city for tens of millions of dollars in litigation fees.
Outraged by the city’s special-ed legal bills, Congress capped fees in D.C. special-ed cases. But, as The Examiner has reported, some lawyers have gotten around the caps by filing multiple lawsuits for single students, alleging that each new blown deadline represents a separate cause of action.
D.C. has more special-ed hearings than the 50 states combined. The litigation has helped make D.C. the most expensive special-ed system in the nation: Taxpayers spend about $300 million a year for about 11,000 special-needs students.
The code was published on the court’s Web site. Through a spokeswoman, Satterfield declined comment Wednesday.
The new rules were cheered by D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, who has already sued two private lawyers for bringing what Nickles calls frivolous special-ed cases.
“I think all lawyers of the special-ed bar ought to be professionals,” Nickles told The Examiner. “I’m looking at one case where a lawyer didn’t even know his client had died six months previously.”
