Predictable

From the Ledger.com:

Defense lawyers willing to take court-appointed first-degree murder cases are harder to find than bigfoot these days. Just ask Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter, who can't find enough lawyers for two new first-degree murder cases with multiple defendants on his docket. After coming up short in Polk County, he called a judge in Hillsborough County to find out whether he knows of any lawyers willing to come to Polk to take on any of the defendants, but he said has not heard back yet.

At fault, defense lawyers say, is a new law that took effect July 1. The law sets pay so low that many lawyers have refused to sign a contract to take on new court-appointed cases, according to A. Russell Smith, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It's an issue, and it needs to be resolved quickly," Judge Hunter said.

Ed: I agree, but don't see how it can be resolved quickly. The Regional Counsel system will be given time to succeed or fail, one way or another.

The law (SB 1088) "creates a compensation structure which is designed to encourage a substandard level of representation, and to force lawyers to plead their clients guilty to the charges quickly and without adequate investigation," Smith said. "It does so by setting flat fees which are so low that lawyers lose money if they properly investigate a case....Defense lawyers opposed the bill before it was approved during the last session of the Legislature, warning that many lawyers would quit taking court-appointed cases. Their predictions have come true, at least so far.

Statewide, 68 percent of the lawyers who previously had been on the court-appointed list refused to sign up when the new law took effect, Smith said.

The new law also created a second system of public defenders, called conflict counsel, but their offices will not be up and running and ready to take new cases until at least October. The Office of Conflict Counsel will take on the second defendant in multi-defendant cases, but private lawyers will still need to be appointed in cases with more than two defendants.

And the likely result?

The experience level of lawyers who take court-appointed cases is going down and their caseloads are skyrocketing. It is only a matter of time before we see the courts flooded with ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims.