Tomorrow will be a better day

Hi. I’m the guy who blogs sporadically over at the imbroglio. Gideon has been busy working and focusing on Connecticut criminal law on his main blog so I volunteered to help out a little here at PD Stuff to keep the PD news and errata flowing. My goal is to increase the posting frequency here and start the rumor that Sanchovilla and Blonde Justice are having an affair which is making Skelly incredibly jealous because he called dibs on Sancho and even got his nails done.

Oh, sorry. What I meant to say is that since the last update here at PD Stuff, public defenders in seven states have begun refusing cases because of high case loads and lack of funds/resources. Scoplaw is right in the thick of it, working in the office that is currently litigating the issue in the FL Supreme Court. Simple Justice points out that the incredibly bad working conditions of public defenders are nothing new:

For as long as I can remember, PDs have been at the edge of a precipice, doing the heavy lifting of representing the poor so that the wheels of the criminal justice system can grind away. They stood there trying to hold back the crush of humanity that threatened to swallow them, and the system. The crush can no longer be held back, unless these offices give up any pretense of providing meaningful representation. No one can represents hundreds of defendants at a time. No lawyer can fulfill their ethical obligation when their caseload that increases at this pace. They are literally drowning under a sea of humanity.

With hatchet jobs in the press about public defenders it’s no wonder so few people seem to understand the realities of the situation. And as if that weren’t bad enough, Skelly points to the Legal Ethics Forum where Andrew Perlman thinks that the situation is only going to get worse. At least in Wisconsin, some PDs are getting recognized as the unsung heroes they are (via Song of the Soul). Gideon had a great suggestion to address the dire situation nationwide: a bailout for public defender systems.

Down in the trenches, Ipse Dixit is dealing with clients who aren’t helping themselves, Injustice Anywhere has been working hard for thankless clients, and Doubtslinger just lost a murder trial. That’s a tough one, but Doubtslinger has the attitude we all must have in these times, the attitude that we must have to keep us going against all odds: “Tomorrow will be a better day.”

It better be, dammit. Hey, at least we got a new president.