Gideon at A Public Defender has been feeling a little left out lately. But my post yesterday, together with Norm’s, touched a nerve. Gideon offers an explanation here, but that fails to explain the burdens that public defenders shoulder, and the debt that the criminal defense bar owes them for their efforts.
Few jobs are less sexy, financially rewarding or unappreciated than being a public defender. They are the lawyers of last resort. As Gid notes, they don’t pick their clients. They get what is left over. They get the defendants that are at the bottom of the barrel. No money and little luck. Often without a chance of success, they are a sorry lot.
What got to Gideon was the talk about the won-lost record. How does a public defender explain his scorecard when he carries 200 cases at a time, most of which have absolutely no chance of a “win”, at least the way we describe it. To many, the win is a very relative thing. To public defenders, the win is to give their clients a better chance than they would have without them. Every year they chop off a sentence is a win. Sometimes they get a client with a winable case, but most of the time winning just isn’t in the cards for their clients. Can we blame the lawyer because the clients he represents come to him with insurmountable problems? And yet, sometimes they do “win”. Most of the time, they win something, and that’s pretty darn good.
At least, you might think, that these defendants, unloved by anyone else, would appreciate what the public defender does for them. Not a chance. They challenge the public defender to see if they’re worthy of representing them. They can be crazy, angry, vicious, dirty, disgusting, ignorant. It doesn’t matter. The public defender will still represent them. And will do so to the best of his ability.
Gideon writes about how fancy lawyers like Bennett, Norm and me can pick and choose our clients. While the picking aspect may be somewhat overrated, it is true. I don’t represent child molesters. I don’t represent people I don’t like. I can afford to tell them “no”. No one makes me represent anyone I don’t want to. Mind you, it never has anything to do with the seriousness of their case, or the probability of success. I take the hard cases. But it is my choice.
Gideon has no choice. Gideon takes them because no one else will and they must be represented. This doesn’t mean that every public defender is the reincarnation of Clarence Darrow. Or Mother Teresa. Some are better lawyers than others. Some are great lawyers, who just happen to chose to be public defenders because they believe in what they are doing. Some go on to become renown criminal defense lawyers. Others, not. But all do the dirty work of representing the worst amongst us, because that’s their job.
I came across an old Craigs List posting the other day. I found it on Volokh, of all places. I sent it to Gideon because it was rightfully his. It is politically incorrect, as many good things are, but expresses the reality of being a public defender awfully well. And it’s very funny to boot. But since Gideon didn’t use it, I’m taking it back and offering it here. Check it out.
To Gideon and all public defenders, we recognize and appreciate what you do for the system.
Few jobs are less sexy, financially rewarding or unappreciated than being a public defender. They are the lawyers of last resort. As Gid notes, they don’t pick their clients. They get what is left over. They get the defendants that are at the bottom of the barrel. No money and little luck. Often without a chance of success, they are a sorry lot.
What got to Gideon was the talk about the won-lost record. How does a public defender explain his scorecard when he carries 200 cases at a time, most of which have absolutely no chance of a “win”, at least the way we describe it. To many, the win is a very relative thing. To public defenders, the win is to give their clients a better chance than they would have without them. Every year they chop off a sentence is a win. Sometimes they get a client with a winable case, but most of the time winning just isn’t in the cards for their clients. Can we blame the lawyer because the clients he represents come to him with insurmountable problems? And yet, sometimes they do “win”. Most of the time, they win something, and that’s pretty darn good.
At least, you might think, that these defendants, unloved by anyone else, would appreciate what the public defender does for them. Not a chance. They challenge the public defender to see if they’re worthy of representing them. They can be crazy, angry, vicious, dirty, disgusting, ignorant. It doesn’t matter. The public defender will still represent them. And will do so to the best of his ability.
Gideon writes about how fancy lawyers like Bennett, Norm and me can pick and choose our clients. While the picking aspect may be somewhat overrated, it is true. I don’t represent child molesters. I don’t represent people I don’t like. I can afford to tell them “no”. No one makes me represent anyone I don’t want to. Mind you, it never has anything to do with the seriousness of their case, or the probability of success. I take the hard cases. But it is my choice.
Gideon has no choice. Gideon takes them because no one else will and they must be represented. This doesn’t mean that every public defender is the reincarnation of Clarence Darrow. Or Mother Teresa. Some are better lawyers than others. Some are great lawyers, who just happen to chose to be public defenders because they believe in what they are doing. Some go on to become renown criminal defense lawyers. Others, not. But all do the dirty work of representing the worst amongst us, because that’s their job.
I came across an old Craigs List posting the other day. I found it on Volokh, of all places. I sent it to Gideon because it was rightfully his. It is politically incorrect, as many good things are, but expresses the reality of being a public defender awfully well. And it’s very funny to boot. But since Gideon didn’t use it, I’m taking it back and offering it here. Check it out.
To Gideon and all public defenders, we recognize and appreciate what you do for the system.
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Well, I’m certainly not going to go around asking for sympathy. At least not directly.
You would never do so, which is why I felt it appropriate to offer the homage. If you have to ask for credit (or sympathy), you usually don’t deserve it.