How Gary Polland Earns Million$ on CPS Appointments

Gary Polland was able to earn over $1.9 million in court appointments since 2010 using this simple strategy: get appointed a LOT and bill a LOT of hours every day. Polland’s political clout in Republican primaries prompted Judges Devlin, Phillips, Schneider, Pratt, Millard and Lombardino to appoint Polland hundreds of times. Over 90% of Polland’s apointments came from those judges.

Once Polland got the appointments, he often billed more hours than a mere mortal could possibly work in a day. The following chart summarizes Polland’s work on October 1, 2013. The hours Polland billed for CPS home visits are shown in one column and all other “out of court” hours he billed for that day are in the next column. Appointed attorneys are paid flat rates for court appearances and, on this day, Polland only had one court appearance.

On this one day, Gary Polland billed for 30 hours of lawyer work and for one juvenile court appearance. Click here to see the actual invoices that Polland submitted for that day (children’s names have been redacted).

I assume Polland will rely on the “Alicia Franklin” defenses that: (1) these hours billed include work done by an associate attorney or social worker, and (2) everyone is doing it. None of the invoices submitted by Polland say that any of the work was done by anyone other than Polland.

As noted in prior issues of this newsletter, it is clear that the law on billing by CPS appointees does not allow the attorney ad litem to bill for work done by others. Click here to read my article that provides the legal basis for this conclusion.

I am writing a letter to the District Attorney requesting that Gary Polland’s billing in CPS cases be investigated and I am again asking Devon Anderson to recuse herself because of her political ties to Mr. Polland. I am not saying that Mr. Polland committed the crime of tampering with a government record by submitting false billing records on CPS cases. However, my criminal complaint sets forth the facts and law and asks for an investigation to determine if a crime has been committed.

Polland is the former Chair of the Harris County Republican Party and he has enormous political influence in Harris County Republican primaries, especially with judges, because he is one of the “Big Three” endorsers. It is virtually impossible to win a Harris County GOP judicial primary, even for an incumbent, without at least two of three endorsements from Hotze, Lowry or Polland. Unlike Hotze or Lowry, Polland is an attorney.Every two years, Polland makes a lot of money from his business, Conservative Media Properties, LLC, doing business as the Texas Conservative Review, which endorses candidates in Republican primaries. Candidates give Polland money to pay for his mailers and local judicial candidates almost have to pay Polland because voters simply cannot know which of the dozens of judicial candidates are qualified. In election season, judges come to the attorneys asking for contributions, except for Polland. Unlike the rest of us, Polland is able to go to the judges and ask them for money. He is in a truly unique and powerful position (see story below).I do not think our Republican District Attorney, Devon Anderson, who was endorsed by Polland and who appears at campaign functions with Judge Franklin, is going to seriously investigate either one. Anderson needs to recuse herself from the criminal complaints I have filed.