Breaking News

Well, I'm sorry I haven't written in recently.  Things have been rather busy.  How busy?  Kind of crazily so.  I've had a couple of trials since I last wrote, and went down to Key West for a much needed breather with some friends.  At this point I don't think I'm chronically sleep deprived, as I was when the average day was 12 hours long - I feel so much sharper.  Oddly, having the energy to actually go out and do things has made it more difficult to blog.  Even if the going out is simply to the grocery store.

The big news is that the office may soon be refusing appointments.  More I cannot say, except the implications of this can get much bigger, very quickly.

Here's a link to the local article: http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/555857.html

And a few excerpts:

The Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office plans to begin turning away thousands of cases in the coming weeks, arguing it is so short-staffed and underfunded that attorneys can't effectively cover their assigned cases.

''We're dancing as fast as we can. We can't keep this up. We don't have any alternative,'' Public Defender Bennett Brummer said Monday, noting that his attorneys are required by the Constitution to provide adequate representation for indigent defendants.

Brummer's plan: Refuse most felony cases. The office will continue to take cases in juvenile and misdemeanor court and the most serious felony cases -- first-degree murders and capital sexual batteries.

Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein is considering a similar measure.

Brummer blames state legislators for creating the problem

''These people have a choice as to how much conduct to criminalize,'' he said. ``They should be living within their means, too. They can posture and be tough on crime without regard for their ability to support the courts that are necessary to process their cases.''

But state Sen. Victor Crist, chair of the Justice Appropriations Committee, said Brummer is grandstanding ``because the cuts weren't that severe and they can find better ways to deal with them.''

''We made sure that everyone in the budget was funded at levels that we knew they could operate successfully at and do the jobs they are constitutionally required to do,'' Crist said.

The public defenders' offices represent indigent defendants who can't afford to hire private attorneys. The Miami-Dade staff of 177 trial attorneys handles some 100,000 cases every year.

`TOO ABSURD'

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle was surprised by Brummer's plan.

''We have not received any official notification of this plan,'' said spokesman Ed Griffith. ``Frankly, such a position would be too absurd to contemplate at this point.''

Legal experts disagreed Monday on whether Brummer can refuse cases simply because his attorneys are overworked.

''The first showdown you're looking at is between the public defenders and the judge and how quick they can get out of jail after the judge puts them in jail for not accepting cases,'' said University of Florida law professor Bob Dekle. ``Refusing to accept appointments in that situation is basically refusing to perform his constitutional duty.''

Buddy Jacobs, general counsel for the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, also questioned the legality of the move, noting that a 2005 law prohibits such action.

University of Miami law professor Donald Jones sided with Brummer's assessment and said the only legal solution will cost the state more money than the funding Brummer wants.

''What's going to have to happen, as near as I can tell, is the court's going to have to appoint private counsel, which will be more expensive,'' Jones said.

Three different times in the past, Brummer has refused to accept cases and forced the courts to appoint private attorneys. Each time the courts have agreed that his constitutional responsibility to his clients trumped budget woes.

''I'm not the only one. The case law is full of examples of public defenders not accepting cases,'' he said.

Brummer's office estimates it might have to refuse as many as 2,000 cases a month and it's unclear who will take the cases.

The Legislature set up regional counsel offices last year to take indigent clients when the public defenders' offices have conflicts of interest.

Joseph George, the regional counsel for Miami-Dade and Monroe, said he would take as many as he could but that his staff of 21 lawyers could never take on an additional 2,000 cases a month.

''Could we handle some of them? Of course we could,'' George said. ``I don't know what the right balance would be.''

`NO CHOICE'

The county's private defense bar has formally backed Brummer, saying he didn't have a choice.

Said Barry Wax, immediate past president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers:

``It's gotten to a point where their staffing has been so diminished by these budget cuts and the lawyers have been asked to do so much more than they could even conceivably be able to handle that the administration was really left with no choice but to take radical action.''

Comments

[Jen]

Wow.

Also, this is complete bullshit: `Refusing to accept appointments in that situation is basically refusing to perform his constitutional duty.''

If you accept so many appointments that you can't provide effective representation, you're denying your client's Sixth Amendment rights. Geez.

[Jannie Sue]

You should never start a post with apologizing for not writing.

I didn't know poets were allowed to be lawyers or vice versa.

Just kidding. kind of.

[Scoplaw]

I do a lot of things I shouldn't. Feel free to hold it against me. Just kidding. Sort of.