Thursday, February 17, 2000
Supreme Court asked to look at public defender pay
Constitutional issue: Low-income not getting a fair trial?
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The battle over pay rates for Hamilton County's public defenders is headed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
A Cincinnati lawyer asked the court to step in Wednesday when he filed a petition claim ing the county's pay rate is so low it violates the U.S. Constitution.
Without a pay raise, the petition states, low-income defendants will not receive fair trials because their court-appointed lawyers will not have the resources to put up a fight.
“Assigned counsel have one hand tied behind their back,” said lawyer Robert Newman, who filed the petition. “They don't have the support from the public defender's office to try cases the way they ought to be tried.”
Mr. Newman filed the petition on behalf of Cincinnati lawyer Edward Felson, who recently stopped doing public defender work because of the pay level. The petition asks the Supreme Court to appoint a commission to review the county's $30-an-hour pay rate and recommend an appropriate increase.
State records show Hamilton County's pay to public defenders is tied for second-lowest among Ohio's 88 counties. It was last increased 10 years ago and is 36 percent below the state average of $47 an hour.
Hamilton County Public Defender Louis Strigari said the pay rate has prompted more than 100 lawyers to drop out of the public defender program in the last year.
He said he will soon ask county commissioners for a rate increase to $40 an hour or more. “At this juncture, I really don't know what is enough,” Mr. Strigari said.
Although it does not recommend a dollar amount, Mr. Newman's petition argues that the current pay scale jeopardizes the basic rights of low-income defendants. That's be cause the public defender's job is based on the principle that everyone — including those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer — will have legal representation if accused of a crime.
The public defender's office provides that representation in felony cases by making lawyers in private practice available to low-income defendants. Because the lawyers voluntarily put their names on the public defender's list, they can drop out at any time.
Mr. Felson said he left because he took a financial hit whenever he invested a significant amount of time in a public defender case.
While $30 an hour may sound like a good wage, Mr. Felson and other lawyers say that running a private practice is like running any business. For many of them, the hourly expense of renting office space, paying bills and maintaining a staff tops $50 an hour.
“When I totaled up the costs, I realized that $30 an hour is nothing,” Mr. Felson said. “I just couldn't afford to keep doing it.”
In the petition, Mr. Felson and Mr. Newman suggest the pay rate may encourage lawyers to cut corners. Instead of going to trial, they argue, attorneys may cut deals with prosecutors that are not always in the best interest of their clients.
They say those deals — such as guilty pleas to lesser charges — might not be accepted by defendants who are able to afford lawyers.
Mr. Newman said most public defenders do the best they can under the circumstances and work long hours without pay to do the job right. “A great many public defenders do good work,” Mr. Newman said.
The problem, he said, is a system that makes it almost impossible for them to do that work for long.
The Supreme Court could consider Mr. Newman's petition in the next few months.
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