More about paying public defenders

As I wrote in today's column, the political posturing over unpaid criminal defense contracts is irritating and it's putting a financial squeeze on attorneys who already have waited for weeks to be paid for the work they've done for the state. But the longer this stalemate drags out, the more people are starting to wonder if there might not be long-term effects as well.

The state relies on hundreds of private attorneys to provide criminal defense for clients who can't afford to hire their own counsel -- and pays a fraction of what mid-career attorneys can charge their private clients. What happens to the justice system if those attorneys decide it's not worth the hassle to accept state contracts? Our already overburdened courts system becomes even more bogged down.

“If the attorneys stop taking these cases, or there are fewer of them, it's going to slow everything way down,” Nevada attorney Mark Olberding told me when we talked briefly on the phone today. "And the people who will take these cases will be your youngest and least experienced or your most desperate attorneys,” he said.

Olberding lays it all out in this letter, which he told me he sent to his state legislators and to House and Senate leaders:

I am lucky, I have been practicing law for 25 years and court appointed work is about 25 percent of my total income. I can do without it and, frankly, I would probably earn more if I did not do Court appointed work. I earn about one-third (?) of my regular rate per hour as a contract attorney then I would if I charged my regular rates.I do court appointed because it needs to be done not because I am getting rich off of it or need it to keep my office open and staff paid.That is not the case for a lot of contract attorneys. They are usually young and just starting off. They need the contract work to survive. In some cases, it can represent up to 90% of their annual income.To hold up payments for work done in good faith and under a contract just to have political leverage is unconscionable. This delay may help drive away the young professional people both parties say they want to attract to the State. It certainly will affect rural attorneys disproportionately.The delay will also cause a lot of attorneys to reconsider whether they will accept the contract if they cannot be assured they are going to be paid. Already, I am by far the senior attorney on the court appointed attorney on the contract list in my county. Most attorneys with even half of my experience refuse the contract because it pays so little. If the younger attorneys have to wonder if they are going to be paid in a timely manner or at all, you may well find that there will be no criminal defense attorneys willing to take indigent cases and the entire criminal judicial system will be in a state of crisis if not collapse.I urge you to pass the supplemental appropriation for the indigent attorney fund,If I can be of assistance to you, please feel free to contact me; if not, thank you for your time.Mark J. OlberdingOlberding Law Office

I do court appointed because it needs to be done not because I am getting rich off of it or need it to keep my office open and staff paid.

That is not the case for a lot of contract attorneys. They are usually young and just starting off. They need the contract work to survive. In some cases, it can represent up to 90% of their annual income.

To hold up payments for work done in good faith and under a contract just to have political leverage is unconscionable. This delay may help drive away the young professional people both parties say they want to attract to the State. It certainly will affect rural attorneys disproportionately.

The delay will also cause a lot of attorneys to reconsider whether they will accept the contract if they cannot be assured they are going to be paid. Already, I am by far the senior attorney on the court appointed attorney on the contract list in my county. Most attorneys with even half of my experience refuse the contract because it pays so little. If the younger attorneys have to wonder if they are going to be paid in a timely manner or at all, you may well find that there will be no criminal defense attorneys willing to take indigent cases and the entire criminal judicial system will be in a state of crisis if not collapse.

I urge you to pass the supplemental appropriation for the indigent attorney fund,

If I can be of assistance to you, please feel free to contact me; if not, thank you for your time.

Mark J. Olberding

Olberding Law Office

Nevada, Iowa 50201