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Overworked and underpaid! Though many have this notion of attorneys making huge sums of money and doing very little to collect it, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the attorneys working for the Missouri State Public Defender System.
Too much work and too little pay is not a new issue with this body, but the dilemma has been getting worse since it was identified several years ago; and there's no relief in sight.
In order to understand the nature of the problem, it is imperative to know about the public defender system.
According to the Missouri State Public Defender System's Web site, "In response to the guarantee of effective assistance of counsel contained in both the United States and Missouri constitutions, the Missouri State Public Defender System was established on April 1, 1982, as a system for providing defense services to every jurisdiction within the state by means of a centrally administered organization having a full-time staff."
This public defender system works on three levels of the judiciary system and is divided into a three-part structure. The trial division, the capital division and the appellate/post- conviction divisions and the attorneys within typically handle homicides, class A-B felonies, class C-D felonies, misdemeanors, traffic cases, juvenile delinquency cases and probation/parole violations.
There are 36 public defender districts in the state. Each district manages several attorneys and handles cases in the counties in that district. Vernon County is the home of the Area 28, Missouri State Public Defender office, which is located at 329 C N. Barrett Road, Nevada.
The five attorneys working out of the Nevada office have six counties they cover. Barton, Cedar, Dade and Vernon are the primary counties and Bates and St. Clair are the "conflict" or secondary counties. Each attorney covers cases in the primary counties and cases in the conflict counties when an attorney from those counties discovers a conflict such as two defendants in one case. It isn't ethical for primary county attorneys to defend both defendants, so the conflict attorney is brought in to assure fair and adequate representation.
Public defenders only represent a defendant in criminal court and then only when jail time is mandated by the severity of the crime or considered by the prosecution. The income level of the defendant must be below the federal poverty guidelines in order to qualify for services.
If a defendant qualifies for the service, one of the approximately 350 public defenders in the state will represent them in a courtroom. Where the problem lies is that there are considerably more than the 150 felony cases assigned to each attorney than recommended by the U.S, Department of Justice guidelines, and the limited budget won't allow for the addition of new attorneys which could balance the scales of justice and give defendants the representation guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions.
The findings of a second, long term study of the Missouri State Public Defender system conducted by The Spangenburg Group and the Center for Justice, Law and Society at George Mason University support the claims of many within the public defender hierarchy that their system is overloaded to the point of collapse.
So, there is the problem, case overload and a shortage of funding are working in concert to bring the system to its already weakened knees. The situation is bad enough that MSPD Deputy Director Cathy Kelly said, "There's got to be some relief; I don't know where or how, but the current situation simply can't continue."
Next week: The loads the system has to endure and some of the ways that have been tried or proposed to alleviate the problem and see that justice is served to all the people of our state.