"'Bummer, dude' doesn't really cover it, does it?"

One of my colleagues made quite an impression on Fallout Kid:

The cat that runs the show for Juvenile Law is a nice enough guy... He talked about how he is a Washington State Juvenile Public Defender. He handles a huge f*cking caseload: 100 cases, sometimes 80... (F)or the private practice I work, I sometimes feel like I'm running my ass into the ground with about 60-70 active files. 100? F*ck, that's crazy...

I'll need to check my caseload stats in the morning.

Must-see P.D. TV

A preview of Feige's big TV series, Raising the Bar:

I say: All about public defenders fighting the good fight against the system while everyone else gets annoyed by their whiny do-gooder attitudes and cheap haircuts. Embarrassingly enjoyable...

Holiday offering

From Kenshusei:

Gifts as They Are

My clients are indigent... Occasionally (though a better word might be "rarely"), we really get to help people out of tight spots and our clients want to thank us. Now, as we've already established my clients are... poor, it becomes clear that they can't really afford to give us lavish gifts to show their thanks. But the gifts they do give have taught me a valuable lesson...

From probation to prison thanks to MySpace?

As you read here at A&C last month, from today's
National Law Journal (link via UW's Trial Ad Notes):

Lawyers in civil and criminal cases are increasingly finding that social networking sites can contain treasure chests of information for their cases. Armed with printouts from sites such as Facebook and MySpace, attorneys have used pictures, comments and connections from these sites as powerful evidence in the courtroom.

"It's going to be more and more helpful in the future," said Mark Diebolt, a deputy county attorney in Pima County, Ariz... Diebolt said an eyewitness recently identified a first-degree murder suspect in a group photograph posted on MySpace... D. Jesse Smith, a solo practitioner in Tucson, Ariz., said... (i)n a recent misdemeanor assault case..., he was able to prove someone other than his client was the aggressor who started the fight because his MySpace page contained a video of him beating someone up...

One defense lawyer said that... the judge relied heavily on MySpace to decide on his client's sentence. Steve Balash of Santa Barbara... said that Jessica Binkerd was sentenced in January to five years and four months in prison after she drove under the influence of alcohol and got into a crash in which her passenger was killed. Balash said he expected Binkerd to get probation, but she received a prison sentence in large part because her MySpace page showed her wearing an outfit with shot glasses and an alcohol advertisement after the accident...

Why, just today outside the courtroom here, one teenager's parent was talking about wanting to sue the cops for invasion of privacy, because they printed out the teenager's (incriminating) MySpace pages.

"You play the organ like a madwoman"

Llama the prosecutor sends a little love our way:

I'll give a shout out to the public defenders -- the PD from my courtroom today had seven people in custody, plus at least twenty-some clients to represent. Imagine having to give competent legal advice to all of those people...

My dad the public defender

Caroline's dad is doing such a good job in trial, Caroline's mom called to say:

"dad was great! he made two witnesses cry!"

"Because sometimes they're innocent"

From The Ice Belongs Out There, Not in Here:

Law Talk: Defending Guilty People Isn't Easy

The problem with people who are genuinely guilty is: they're not going to present like innocent people. The evidence is not going to help you get them off. You will be looking at absolutely overwhelming evidence screaming THIS GUY IS SO GUILTY, and it is so damn hard to put that aside and say I'm gonna do the best job I can...

But sometimes, they aren't guilty...

Beleaguered

Missliberry spent over three hours in court, waiting patiently:

The public defender was nice, too. Beleaguered most of the morning, as everybody wanted to do their own defending and talking. He kept saying, "Please, let me do my job!" but as he pointed out later, nobody was listening...

"I'd like to request a change of menu"

Dahne reveals the "secret lawyer-code for "I'm about to say something really stupid and it's not my fault"."

Preconceived notions

Former prosecutor's intern carries prejudices into the jury pool, former prosecutor's intern doesn't make it onto the jury. Any questions?

This snotty comment -

defense attorney HAD to be a public defender, he wasn't all that smart or picky about the jurors.. nor was he well put-together

- is almost offset by this choice of avatar: Bonus link goes to the image source: SLC Punk.

A very special potential colleague

Let me be the first to embrace Jadesr 's most superior classmate:

There is a guy in my class that I have mad respect for... Anyhow, this guy has an awesome GPA and resume. He has offers from an assload of big firms for money I could only dream of making. BUT he has decided to be a public defender because he is troubled that PDs offices are populated with losers and rejects, such that poor people who have to rely on public defenders never really have a chance in criminal trials... that they would... if all defendants actually got access to good legal council...

Wait, it gets better.

So, he gets this job with the PD in a nearby county BUT, they want him to take a drug test... I would bitch a lot, and then go pee in the damn cup. But, not him, he QUITS. Now, they know that he has mad offers for like, 4 times as much $ as they are paying him, so they were all stoked to get him since he is a rock star so they freak out, and are actually considering asking the county to change the policy. I have such respect for him for taking a stand like that!

Well, I'd change a county-wide policy to get this catch, wouldn't you? Yes, we're slobbering all over ourselves in anticipation of how such a great co-worker will uplift our loser and reject selves. Just imagine how he went over in his job interview! Now, which one of us will get to share a cubicle with P.D. McDreamy?

Not without a fight

From chiashurb:

Not Guilty

Entering a plea of not guilty in a criminal case is not necessarily a statement by either the lawyer or the client that "defendant didn't do the thing that prosecutor says he did." Defendant doesn't have to say whether or not he did those things, and neither does defender. A plea of not guilty simply means, "I am a free person and I will not give that up without a fight." Nothing more, nothing less...

I'm thinking of forwarding the link to the Pocatello judge who said he'd hand out a harsher sentence to the defendant who'd make the state prove its case in trial.

Client on p.d.: "I am forever in his debt"

Taking a break from missing the green misty forests of his Northwest home, Strangefutures read some public defender bloggers and thought about his own p.d.:

It's obvious from the blogs that the public defenders see themselves as courageous, hard-working, bastions of freedom. It's also obvious that they generally think their clients are ungrateful and a bit dim.

I am very grateful to my public defender. His name is Kevin... The man was seriously bright.

It's been a long time, but I still remember being in awe of how good he was at being able to switch from case to case during a court session... So yes, the stereotype of public defenders being overworked seemed to be borne out. As far as not getting proper time and attention from him...I can't say that was true. I certainly didn't get the time I would've liked, but the time he did have he gave me his full attention...

What we talk about when we're talking before drug court

Here's an inside look at the drug court meeting that takes place before anyone says "all rise," from the point of view of a substance abuse counselor:

This your brain. This is your brain on drug court.

I make a case for allowing my relapsed client an extra week of opt in time, based on her maintaining abstinence. The judge agrees with the stipulation that if she is dirty again, she gets remanded to jail. I am a bit taken back by this. For most of my career doing substance abuse treatment, I have worked from a harm reduction approach. My client is med compliant, trying hard in her out patient program, in CalWorks, stable after a 20+ year history of paranoid schizophrenia, heavy alcohol use, and frequent trips to PES and jail - but this does not matter. If she uses again she goes back to jail. Misguided drug policy, ahoy!

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

For getting an unpaid public defender position and all, this law student is very enthusiastic:

And who should be on that voice mail? The Public Defender I interviewed with... Who by the way is the coolest human being ever. And he's asking me if I want the job. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Congratulations, and share some of that upbeat attitude with your new co-workers.

"some of it is fascinating. some of it disgusts me."

From Nicolle the law student, "the last refuge of the persecuted crack smoker":

love for the PD

i love my clinic at the public defender so much; i wish i didn't have to take class, and i could just spend forty or fifty hours a week there. they'd clearly have enough work for me to do, and i can't get enough of it. i love it.

Downward mobility

From p.d. GTP:

Previously Well-Off People Drive me INSANE!!

You know I can handle the schizophrenics who look like they're about to attack me any minute. I can handle the lewd cat calls, and I can even handle the arguments I sometimes get in with clients who don't trust me and don't trust the system... But, I cannot for the life of me handle the few clients we get who used to be well-off but have now fallen on hard-times and have to come on down to the dreaded public defender's office where we only have cheap bad attorneys of course. *grits teeth*...

"Why couldn't I have been a defense attorney?"

From Law & Order: Magistrate Court, why might a young prosecutor feel the need to vent?

Because my job is the same every day. Snide or condescending defense lawyers that think I'm a lowly misdemeanor prosecutor and not that smart. Public Defenders that whine about their clients' sad stories. Magistrate "judges" with no legal education on power trips. Smelly criminals. Crazy victims...

It's telling that this blogger's mission statement says:

I never intended to get into criminal law, but that was the first job I got...

It's an uncomfortable responsibility.

Sigint

Russian speaker Gluzd listens in on an IM'ing public defender, and posts the results on Livejournal for our edification:

conversation with a public defender

"...i can get these DAs to give me awsome deals but whats the fu***ing point when that a******e is just going to say, oh you are trying to sell me out you dont want to fight for me and i am like god himself could come down hear and try this case and you would still go to jail you moron...

"so i said ok fine, i went off the hook on the trial, but he knew he was f***ed and durring the DA closing he leans over and goes i changed my mind i want that deal now..."

(The Russian words before the intercepted messaging mean (roughly) (I think), "A conversation between old classmates, one, a lawyer provided by the state to represent the poor")

Training day

First day on the job at the p.d.'s office:

I had my first day at the public defender today and it looks like it's going to be pretty good working there. For one thing, everything about the job is f***ing gangster, it's nuts...

I recommend finding a reason to be in a jail sometime... it's like, " f*** you guys, I spent my day in jail. You spent yours in the McDonald's dining area, getting free Coke refills..."

No way a first day in a big firm could even compare. Cheers, new colleague.