State Bar renews call to adequately
fund public defenders and prosecutors
Diane Diel, State Bar President
Over 1,000 private attorneys in Wisconsin play a fundamental role in
maintaining one of our most important institutions – an honest,
fair, and effective criminal justice system – by accepting
appointments from the State Public Defender's office (SPD) when there
are no staff attorneys available to represent indigent defendants who
have a constitutional right to have a lawyer defend their legal rights.
Private attorneys accepting SPD appointments were informed this month
that the funds needed to pay for these services will run out in April,
which means the attorneys will not be paid until the state’s next
fiscal year begins on July 1.
This is a troubling development on at least two levels. First, by
pushing payment of FY 2009 bills into FY 2010, the state is creating
even larger potential shortfalls next year. Second, the compensation
rate in question has been frozen at $40 per hour for over a decade, a
rate so low that it fails to even cover overhead costs for most private
attorneys. This already limits the number of lawyers able to accept SPD
appointments and the prospect of lengthy delays in receiving those
payments further undercuts the state’s ability to meet its
constitutional obligations.
The typical Wisconsin lawyer is a small business owner. In fact, of
the approximately 3,700 law firms in Wisconsin, 92 percent (or 3,400)
are small businesses with five or fewer lawyers. Fully 70 percent (or
2,580) of those law firms are solo practices consisting of only one
lawyer. The small businesses Wisconsin lawyers operate are woven into
the fabric of Wisconsin’s economic life. Wisconsin lawyers provide
employment, pay taxes and support other businesses statewide.
The urgent need to adequately fund SPD private attorney compensation
is further underscored by the fact that county property taxpayers will
end up paying for required legal representation – usually at a
rate far above the $40 per hour paid by the state – if the SPD is
unable to find a lawyer willing to take a case.
This latest development is another red flag that should alert state
policy-makers to the need to adequately fund private bar public
defenders.
The State Bar offers CLE incentive.
State Bar CLE offers a free seminar to attorneys who sign up for
public defender appointments and take five cases. The effort assists the
State Public Defender in meeting the ever-increasing need for additional
private appointment attorneys.
Attorneys eligible for the program must be new to the private bar
appointment list or not have taken a case from the Public Defender's
Office in at least two years. To sign up for the program, contact
attorney Deborah M. Smith at
(608) 261-8856.
