Jackson County v. N.V.

CLARK, Judge.

This is a termination of parental rights case in which the trial court allowed fees to attorneys appointed to represent the indigent parents of the child and taxed the fees as costs payable by Jackson County. The appeal by the county raises the question of whether § 211.462, RSMo 1986, authorizes the court to impose the expense of attorney fees on the county.

Prior decisions of this court and of the Eastern District, reviewed in this opinion, have held in similar if not identical circumstances that the authority to include such fees as court costs was in contemplation by the…