Professor, as so eloquently pointed out by
melstew47, are people here in Rock County also tapping into this social resource who are here illegally or on a work visa in which case I feel representation is warranted opposed to flat out deportation with a promise of life imprisonment for returning? Also, you mentioned passing the state bar in 1991. What was the final student loan/aid bill an dwhat year will you have it paid off?

JimPL, spot on my friend. I would pray to have competent representation if ever needed and could not afford!

The vast majority of public defenders care a great deal about their clients and what happens in their cases. They choose to practice only criminal law and devote their lives to helping people who cannot afford to hire attorneys but deserve excellent representation. Public defenders choose the job despite knowing that they could earn a much higher income working in another area of law. They do this because they believe it is important for everyone to have fair and just treatment in the legal system. No attorney, however, can be a miracle worker and change the facts of a case or a client's past history. Lots of times people are unhappy at the situation they have found themselves in and a convenient person to blame is the attorney who ultimately can't save them from their own bad decisions.

As an attorney, I would never advocate someone representing themselves in legal matters any more than I would advocate someone treating their own serious medical issues. Especially when one's life and liberty are at stake, you need to have someone who knows the legal system, your rights, your options. "He who is his own attorney has a fool for a client."

I disagree with what attorneys can charge.. In fact if regular folks would check into filing their own paperwork for things like child support, divorce etc.. They will find that a Judge will listen more, otherwise its a lot of "court talk".. Been on both sides and will always choose to represent myself (if needed) and save thousands of dollars- like I have!..Hopefully I will never find myself in a situation where I would need an attorney for criminal charges etc..

JimPl--You're not wrong...when I first got licensed to practice law in WI back in '91, it was actually higher--$45/hour out of court, and either $50 or $55/hr in court.***On the 'volunteer' issue, maybe this will clear up the confusion: The P.D. office has Staff Attorneys, which are lawyers employed by the State. However, there are not near enough of them to handle the number of cases that come through the system--especially when the cycle swings into the "let's arrest everyone for everything, AND make punishment mandatory prison/jail time!" (Currently, the U.S. incarcerates over 2 million people, far more than any industrialized nation--and we are the free-est country in the world??) But, I digress. So, there are the full time staff attorneys for the P.D. Office. To handle the huge overflow, private attorneys can "volunteer" to take cases from the P.D. Office that aren't handled by the staff attorneys. Volunteer is probably the wrong word, though at the current pay rate, it's not too far off. But what they mean when they say 'volunteer', is that a private attorney can choose to take on one or more of the overflow cases. If they choose to (and are approved by the P.D. Office), then they get paid the $40/hour rate. It was never meant to mean actually volunteer to do the case for no pay; rather, that you volunteer (choose to) take cases from the P.D. as a private attorney. The kicker is, if no one steps up to take one of these cases, the law requires a judge to appoint a local lawyer at the rate of $70-90 dollars an hour (last I knew; it may have gone up)--but, THOSE attorney fees are paid by the COUNTY; the regular, private-bar cases from the P.D. (the $40/hour cases) are paid by the State. So, the taxpayer can either increase the salary of the P.D. State-paid attorneys, or the taxpayer can pay the much higher rate from the County coffers instead. Either way, the taxpayer will pay. One final note: The moron Republican rep that said 'now is not a good time to increase wages' seems to forget that, over the past 18 or so years, there has NEVER been a "good" time to increase wages. Granted, it's a tough sell to most of the public, but you can't always say "times are tough, we can't afford it."

If it hasn't been raised in ten years it's probably well overdue for an increase. The constitutional and social necessity of providing fair representation in our legal process demands it.

melstew47
There are good public defender's out there, and they do care a great deal about their clients.

are you serious? i have only seen maybe 3 good public defenders in rock county.these 3 actually cared about their clients,most public defenders dont care what happens to their clients because its not worth the trouble they have to go through.i had one attorney tell me,that he didnt have time for this crap!it wasnt worth his time for what he was geting paid.it wouldnt been so bad if he wouldve at least tried to defend my son,but he didnt even care.and everytime i try to talk to him,about the case he says "i told you i took care of it" and he took care of nothing.if you dont have money you do get proper representation,and thats the bottom line.if you are indigent as one post states,i believe most of time you do not get a lawyer who even cares.but i do want to say to the public defenders in rock who actually care and try to help those who need it,Thank-You very much.

"If we want justice, we need to pay the defense attorneys a decent wage. Yes, raise it, but there are other issues more pressing. Let's cut the money the prosecutors get and the ever-growing money for prisons, police, etc. Only the latter will level the playing field."

If by "level the playing field" you mean create an even more criminal friendly system than we already have then no thanks. If you want to live in that kind of a cesspool "utopia", good for you, but the rest of us shouldn't have to be sentenced to that fate. And, oh by the way, if you've seen any of the hidden provisions in the democrat's state budget that they had to hammer out over a holiday weekend under the cover of night you'd see they pretty much did exactly that, gutted the attorney general's office, early release of convicted felons, etc. Don't worry, I'm sure that if poeple like you continue to vote these clowns into office you'll get your wish. Maybe then the rest of us will just finally move out of this hell hole of a state and leave the rest of you behind to be taxed out of your minds and victimized by criminals. Then again, my guess is alot of you folks probably aren't the one's footing the bill for all this spending in the first place.

By paying so little, the state all but guarantees the indigent will be represented by one of the following:
--An attorney fresh out of law school looking for experience.
--An attorney who has a bad reputation or for some other reason can't find much other work.

Don't get me wrong, there are several good attorneys who take on occasional public defender cases. I've worked with several of them. But, many times their hands are tied because the public defender office not only limits the reimbursement rate for attorneys but also has a very tight budget for overall case expenses, such as retaining expert testimony, forensic examinations of evidence, and other related costs.

I could be wrong on this but if memory serves, the Public Defender rates were the same, $40/hour, ten years ago. Would you continue to work for an organization that didn't give you any type of raise for ten years?

Further, at least back then the fund was always running out of money. It wasn't uncommon to have to wait six months to a year to get paid.

Someone earlier commented in a sarcastic manner about overhead in a law office. Well, let's see, there's clerical staff (salary, insurance, other benefits), licensing fees, continuing education, office rent or lease, office equipment, utilities, statute books and other research material that must be updated yearly, insurance, and several other expenses. Not to mention the cost of advancing fees for a client's case, only to not get paid by the client. You might be surprised at how many clients stiff their attorneys when it comes time to pay up.

They call it "volunteer" for a reason, not as a vehicle for financial gain.

If we want justice, we need to pay the defense attorneys a decent wage. Yes, raise it, but there are other issues more pressing. Let's cut the money the prosecutors get and the ever-growing money for prisons, police, etc. Only the latter will level the playing field.

I for one work for the public defender's office, and I know for a fact that they do not volunteer. This article is worded incorrectly and someone should correct it or get the facts straight before they publish it and have people start blogging negative thoughts on here.

My vote is no. We can't afford it. And most charge at least $150/hour or more for other clients. They're doing a service, consider it public service, charity, or just plain helping out. They're getting paid something so it's not as if they are doing it pro bono.

I feel for most attorneys as well as medical professionals. They are saddled with $100,000 - $300,000 dollars of financial aid after college. Crap flows down river my friends. What attorney in their right mind would volunteer their services (regardless of their beliefs) if they were being paid less than what their basic living expenses amounted to? I think the real issue here is how much some of these senior partners in these law firms make. You do not see many of them working pro bono. Imo it is the attorney gaining experience and fighting for their beliefs that suffer most under our states public defender wage scale. I wonder how many attorneys we have reading this blog that could confirm, deny or add to my suspicions? I realize the terms "attorney" and "under paid" do not bode well with most people but there are always three sides to the story......

$40-$70 an hour is a bargain compared to a story in the Gazette last month:
http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2009/may...
*
A paragraph in that story:
"District Judge Barbara Crabb will determine attorney fees for Burnham, Betty Eberle and Sarah Siskind, who charge $325, $300 and $480 an hour, respectively. Burnham has filed a request for $487,322 in attorney fees, which Hazelbaker said he will contest."

What absolute B.S.. Overhead? LOL-LOL-LOL