Kirsten Anderberg watch

In the midst of a call for a public defender general strike, Kirsten Anderberg has written about an instance of bad p.d. behavior from the point of view of a client. It's helpful to see her perspective; she sheds a little light on how the personal becomes political, as personal dealings with some harried and rude p.d. staff at SCRAP in Seattle lead eventually to her condemnation of all p.d.s everywhere.

Multiply that by 100 or 200, and you have baggage on both sides that leads to the beginnings of mutually suspicious attorney-client relationships with many people in your caseload. Once clients have been burned before, you singing "one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl" isn't really going to heal the damage, no matter how good you sound. It's part of the prior experience that clients bring in. When the objective stats show just the opposite, many clients will continue to believe that it's "quite standard knowledge that if you use a public defender, you have a much, much greater chance of going to jail than if you use a private attorney," a misperception that keeps the private-sector dumptrucks and bottom-feeders in business.

I suppose you just do your best within the strictures you face with whoever G d puts in your path. What you don't do is abandon your client. Anderberg doesn't talk about the duty of zealous representation, and I imagine that she wouldn't believe that it exists anyhow. She does seem to believe that no representation is better than representation by a p.d., and again, I think she must have been really screwed over by a p.d. or two in the past to reach that conclusion. The vast majority of my p.d. brothers and sisters are committed to doing better by our clients than that, and Anderberg's experience reminds me that while neither of us asked to be in this relationship, clients and p.d.'s need to start by building some trust.

I would hope I would do a better job than "Sam," even if overloaded. I'm obliged to stand with the one client beside me, even if there are 65 more waiting in the queue. When it's their time, I'll stand by each one of them. I'm not quite clear on how us going on strike leads to fewer people going to jail, or more people getting out of jail sooner. As for clients' moms, I'll have to refer to the Big Dog theory.

I've been unkind to Anderberg's essays in the past and I don't share her opinions, but I need to acknowledge her meeting us p.d.'s halfway with her support for lower caseloads and better funding. She's quoted some good authority out of King County. Finally, I do agree with her on one point: "it is time they quit blaming others." This could go equally for p.d.'s, and for individuals charged with crimes.

Update: Alaskablawg puts it better than I did.