Michigan Hires Judicial Lobbyist to Release State from Federal Monitoring of Child Welfare

Maura Corrigan scheming to cover up Medicaid fraud
in Michigan child welfare

This is the work of Maura Corrigan.

Any state in its right mind would glad to pay even twice this amount to an attorney to argue a case to get from under federal oversight.

There is too much money at stake if the state does not come into compliance with the court settlement.

Michigan stands to loose tens of millions in federal funding if it does not come into compliance.

Look at this attorney more like a lobbyist.  He was hired to make the state look like it is taking care of children in its wards while the contacted agencies keep things status quo.

Now with the merging of the Departments of Community Health and Human Services, it is too premature to release the state from federal monitoring because the adminsitrative structure is not in place.

Notice how there is no mention of Michigan Children's Institute, where the Superintendent Bruce Hoffman is the sole legal guardian for more than 7,000 children.

$558 per hour paid out in child-welfare case

DETROIT – A state agency is bypassing state attorneys and paying a private law firm $558 an hour in an aggressive effort to try to end court oversight of Michigan's child-welfare system.

The Michigan attorney general's office, whose lawyers are on salary, typically represents state departments in legal actions big and small.

It already is deeply involved in the long-running federal case to improve foster care, child welfare and other programs for kids.

Yet John Bursch was hired last year with a specific mission: to persuade a judge to end or greatly reshape an agreement between the Department of Human Services, known as DHS, and a New York group called Children's Rights. He was hired by Maura Corrigan, who led DHS until the end of 2014.

No one questions Bursch's skill. Wearing his trademark bowties, he argued eight cases at the U.S. Supreme Court while serving as Michigan's solicitor general, the top appellate lawyer in state government, until returning to private practice in 2013.

However, his services aren't cheap at a time of tight budgets. His firm, Warner Norcross & Judd, is charging $558 an hour, according to DHS, and so far has been paid $183,823 for work through December. The contract has no ceiling.

One of Bursch's key arguments: The state has made many improvements yet still is forced to spend too much money on attorneys who sued DHS as well as the court-appointed monitors who are marking the department's progress in a 2011 agreement to fix child-welfare programs.

"I absolutely defend it," Corrigan said of hiring Bursch.

The attorney general's office doesn't have "quite the combination of skill sets that John has," she said to The Associated Press. "I don't think they could do it with the degree of skill that John has brought to the litigation. ... He's just an exceptional lawyer."

In December, he asked U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to end oversight of the child-welfare system or at least modify the agreement because 79 percent of goals have been met.

Children's Rights filed the lawsuit in 2006, alleging widespread weaknesses in how the state keeps an eye on thousands of kids in foster care and protective services, among other problems.

It led to a sweeping accord to hire more people and reduce the number of cases per worker.

The pact also sets benchmarks in areas such as children's health and foster-home licensing. The 2008 agreement was renegotiated in 2011 after Gov. Rick Snyder took office and put Corrigan in charge at DHS.

Monitors from New Jersey-based Public Catalyst track the progress while the case remains under the control of the judge.

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