A news article from "before the change"

This article cuts both ways. It intimates that some private defense attorneys may have been over-billing, which in my personal experience with the folks I work with does not happen, but also spells out

For decades, private defense attorneys have represented all the people who couldn't afford a lawyer but had a conflict of interest with the public defender's office.

No more.

Nevermore.

State Sen. Victor Crist, the concept's reluctant sponsor, said the plan will save the state millions of dollars. The private defense bar and local public defenders suggest it will fail because of cost

.

Reluctant? Why?

Critics seem to like the new model even less.

They have their biases. Public defenders will have to compete with the regional offices for the limited pool of new law school graduates willing to work for low pay.

Private attorneys will lose cash flow from conflict cases, some of which brought them $950 and took less than a day to resolve. Senate staff estimated that 80 percent of the criminal conflicts and child dependency now handled by private attorneys will be assigned to the regional offices.

They will still get overflow clients in cases with multiple defendants. But veterans of private conflict representation across the state said it won't be financially worthwhile to take only a handful of indigent cases at the state's asking price.

"Doubtful, " is how Gulfport lawyer James O'Neill described the likelihood of him remaining on the conflict list after 27 years. "I really don't see a lot of reason to."

That might present a few reasons.

Critics say the biggest losers will be defendants in the most serious cases - capital crimes that carry a death sentence or life in prison as punishment. They argue the staff at the regional conflict offices won't be large enough or experienced enough to handle those trials and appeals.

Assigning high-stakes cases to overworked attorneys who are spread out across large geographic areas is a recipe for disaster, private attorneys say. Poor representation on the front end of a case leads to costly appeals later.

"This is not something that can be done on the cheap, " said Jeffrey Harris, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who is president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "When you're sick and you have a heart attack, you don't go looking for the cheapest doctor. You look for the best doctor."

I agree, Mr. Harris. The thing is, when it comes to dependency cases, nobody, and I mean nobody but the defense bar and the parents themselves is particularly interested in finding them "the best doctor".