We are not alone

I found a couple of posts on a blog authored by South Florida attorneys that I admit I hadn't read until the new bill regarding the defense of the poor was passed.

Here's an interesting post. Have an excerpt:

What does it mean for you, the defense attorney who has worked so hard to maintain your growing legal practice? You have a private practice, but you supplement your income with the dozen or so court appointments you get each year off “the wheel”. Or you do it because it is the right thing to do; you want to give something back to your community. Now you are told that, after the Public Defender’s Office conflicts, and the Regional Counsel Office conflicts, that you will be asked to take the case. You are told that you now are under contract and will be paid a flat fee. How much you ask? Let me tell you how much:

CAPITAL SEXUAL BATTERY...................................... 2,000
LIFE FELONY ................................................................ 2,500
FIRST PBL ....................................................................... 2,000
FELONY 1ST DEGREE.................................................... 1,500
FELONY 2ND DEGREE................................................... 1,000
FELONY 3RD DEGREE....................................................... 750
VIOLATION OF PROBATION - FELONY ..................... 500

Here are the rules: Let’s say you plead a third degree felony first time up, no depos taken, wham bam thank you ma’am; five hours of work, $750; that’s $150 per hour. But, let’s say you have that tough case, defendant with multiple priors, or psychological issues, or maybe they are even not guilty, and you need to try the case. You spend 75 hours on the case, and what do you get paid? You guessed it, $750; that’s $10 per hour.

Ten dollars an hour? Ouch.

And then there's this:

It’s time to stand up and fight. There will only be approximately 600-800 felony appointments for the private bar under this new system. It can only work if the attorneys on the wheel (about 325 of them) are willing to take these cases and get paid these ridiculous fees. If you just say “NO”, all of you, there will be nobody to take these cases and you will shut down part of this new system. But all it takes is a few attorneys breaking from the pack and taking the cases, and then, well, the legislature wins. The community loses, the victims lose, the defendants lose, and you lose.

Double ouch! Hey, I'm sympathetic, but DependencyDefense.com is all about adapting to this thing and trying to make some lemonade. Point taken, though. I faced something similar in my county when those on the dependency wheel got their rates cut drastically recently. Some saw me, for continuing to take cases, as a traitor. Hell, I actually was called a traitor. The thing is (and I don't claim that this is a wise thing) dependency defense is pretty much 100% of my practice. If it all goes away, I'll be fine. A couple of weeks on the beach, I'll get my head straight and process endless divorces like everyone else, but in this space before it all falls apart, I still care about my clients and like the fact that I'm good at what I do. I get families back together, and there is some satisfaction in that.

Like I said, point taken. The thing is, there really will always be people to take the under-compensated cases, and by and large they will not be qualified to deal with these cases.

A few weeks ago I saw a similar post at their blog, but I can't find the link now. It had some good advice for conflict and dependency attorneys, such as: let JAC know in writing immediately every case that you currently have.

[ed: sorry for the font changes that, despite my best efforts, can't be fixed once I add a quote to the post]