Miscellaneous

Now How Much Would You Pay? Contracting for Indigent Defense in Fulton County

By Anne Skove, Esq.

The long and twisted saga of indigent defense in Georgia has taken another odd turn. After years of trying to replace contract attorneys with a public defender system, it appears that the contractors are a necessity.

But, given the low pay and high workload, one contract attorney figures she made about $2/hour in one case. Of the 29 contracts signed by the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, the per-case earnings range from $143 to a little over $300/case.

The state budget crunch complicates the situation even more. Fulton County is being asked to eliminate four positions from the conflict defenders office and replace them with contract attorneys.

If you have any idea how Atlanta is put together, you'll see part of the problem with Georgia's patchwork system. Atlanta is made up of several different counties -- mainly Fulton, Gwinett, and Cobb (though the sphere of Atlanta seems to be growing all the time). Thus, defendants in one part of town you get one level of service; those in another may receive something entirely different.

There may always be a need, on some level, for contract attorneys. But a large metro area should have something a bit more uniform. And, contract attorneys can be just as expensive, given the paperwork required to keep up with them, the high learning curve for newbies, and the lack of shared resources among them. A more centralized system, where resources permit and where population justifies it, has been shown to be the best way to protect the constitutional rights of citizens.

See Suit Challenges Court Defense by Contracts, Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 27, 2008). See also the BJS's statistics on indigent defense.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).