Seattle lawyer to oversee Central Washington p.d. overhaul

Attorney to monitor county's public defense system - Robinson selected to ensure Grant County in compliance with settlement:

A Seattle attorney selected by the American Civil Liberties Union and Grant County will monitor the county's public defender system for compliance with a settlement agreement reached in November of last year.

Attorney Jeffery Robinson's five- to- six-year assignment monitoring the county marks the first instance of a county's public defense system being subjected to comprehensive monitoring in Washington, according to an ACLU news release.

This is a singularly positive development. If you'e curious about how benighted public defense used to be in Ephrata / Soap Lake / Moses Lake, I've got a whole mess of old posts about it.

I have good hopes for public 'buy-in' of these needed reforms by the bench and bar in Grant County. All the same, on the dry side of the Cascade Curtain, the phrase "a Seattle attorney" ranks second only to "liberal Seattle psychiatrist" in public esteem. Add "ACLU," and you have all the fixin's for some Red State-style resentment. I'm amused by the subtle signs in this Ephrata - authored article that the east-west divide is still very much alive:

To agree on a monitor, Grant County interviewed five attorneys picked by the ACLU. The county was able to eliminate three candidates. The ACLU chose Robinson from the remaining two candidates, said Grant County Commissioner LeRoy Allison. All five candidates reside in Western Washington...

Well, I'm sure that's because there were absolutely no qualified lawyers east of Snoqualmie Pass, and no suitable peacekeepers from Yakima or Spokane. Puget Sound people are generally tone-deaf to how eastern Washingtonians rankle at manifestations of Seattle attitude. (okay, Seattle-ites, in unison now: "there is no Seattle attitude!")

One last thing:

Allison said the county was enforcing caseload limits, with a "soft cap" of 204 felony cases annually for public defenders. The ACLU, however, wanted the attorneys limited to 150 felony cases each year, which Allison said the county currently meets...

Where can I get one of those soft caps? I bet they're very stylin'.