Could a Kentucky county attorney hire out-of-county contract lawyers to prosecute child-support and paternity cases?

Plain-English summary

A Grayson County attorney asked whether lawyers hired by independent contract to collect child support and establish paternity had to live in the county, even though they did no criminal work. The Kentucky Attorney General said in 1992 that lawyers who prosecuted the three kinds of actions discussed in the opinion performed statutory duties of the county attorney. They were therefore assistant county attorneys under KRS 69.300 and had to reside in the county that elected the county attorney. The AG said the county attorney had no statutory authority to subcontract or delegate those prosecutorial duties to a lawyer outside his direct control and supervision.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1992. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Historical summary

County attorneys staffing child-support work

The opinion identified paternity proceedings, URESA actions, and cabinet-initiated child-support collection actions. The statutes cited in the opinion assigned each type to the county attorney. A lawyer prosecuting one of them consequently performed part of the county attorney’s official work and counted as an assistant county attorney for the residency rule.

Lawyers hired by the county attorney under independent contracts

The contract label and absence of criminal assignments did not change the AG’s conclusion for lawyers prosecuting the specified actions. The request did not precisely describe every task the lawyers performed, so the opinion tied its answer to those prosecution duties.

Common questions

Did a child-support lawyer have to live in the county where the county attorney was elected?

The 1992 opinion said yes if that lawyer prosecuted one of the specified child-support or paternity actions as part of the county attorney’s statutory work.

Did an independent-contractor agreement avoid the residency rule?

No for the prosecution work described. The AG treated those lawyers as assistant county attorneys because of the duties they performed.

What if the lawyer did no criminal cases?

That fact did not change the AG’s analysis. It focused on the statutes assigning paternity and child-support actions to the county attorney.

Background and statutory framework

KRS 69.300 required assistant county attorneys to live in the county electing the county attorney. The AG cited KRS 406.021(1), KRS 407.250(2), and KRS 205.712(4) for three kinds of family-support proceedings assigned to that office. It reasoned that prosecution of those actions was official county-attorney work even when the lawyer was hired by contract.

Citations and references

• KRS 69.300: assistant county attorney residency and duties.
• KRS 406.021(1): paternity proceedings identified by the AG.
• KRS 407.250(2): URESA prosecutions identified by the AG.
• KRS 205.712(4): county attorney designation for child-support administration.

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d96b8075-d1e3-4675-81a3-a28df47f7cac/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_d96b8075-d1e3-4675-81a3-a28df47f7cac

Original opinion text

OAG 92-9
January 22, 1992
Thomas H. Gof
Grayson County Attorney
10 Public Square
Leitchfield, Kentucky 42754
RE: Child Support Collections
Dear Mr. Gof:
You have asked whether attorneys employed by a county attorney to collect child support must reside in the county in which they are employed. You state that the collection attorneys are not permitted to do criminal work and are employed through an independent employment contract. You state that the attorneys work in the child support division of the county attorney’s office solely for the purpose of collecting child support and establishing paternities. KRS 69.300 states, “The assistant county attorneys shall reside in the county in which the county attorney is elected . . . .” The statute also states that assistant county attorneys have the same powers and duties as county attorneys except that they are under the supervision of the county attorney. Your question thus becomes whether attorneys who collect child support and establish paternities are assistant county attorneys. Although your letter does not indicate precisely what the child support collection attorneys do, we are aware of at least three kinds of legal proceedings in which they might appear. The first is paternity actions, which according to KRS 406.021(1) “shall be brought by the county attorney upon the request of such complainant herein authorized.” The second is URESA actions filed under KRS Chapter

407. URESA actions must be prosecuted by the county attorney
     pursuant to KRS 407.250(2). The third action is a collection action initiated by the Cabinet for Human Resources. Under KRS 205.712(4), the county attorney “shall be considered the designee of the cabinet for purposes of administering” the child support program. In each of these three actions, the county attorney is designated by statute as the party responsible for maintaining the suit. There is no statutory authority for the county attorney to subcontract or delegate the function to an attorney not under his direct control and

OAG 92-9
Page 2

supervision. We believe that an attorney who prosecutes any of the three actions described above is performing a part of the county attorney’s official duties and must therefore be considered an assistant county attorney. As a result, the attorney is required to live in the county for which the county attorney was elected. Sincerely, Chris Gorman Attorney General

Ross T. Carter
Assistant Attorney General
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