John Oliver talks about the very few lawyers that serve the many, many defendants who cannot afford an attorney. In real life, the system doesn’t quite work like you think, and far from the way it should.
Mostly, I don't much care for John Oliver. But on this one, he hit it accurately enough. I was an assistant public defender for 5 years. And this is dangerously close to the working conditions we faced. We didn't have the cockroaches, but otherwise it was this miserable. Caseload was too heavy. There was no budget for investigators. My salary never reached $30,000 (from 1993 to 1998). Juries are predisposed to guilty findings, even when the evidence doesn't make sense, and more predisposed when the client is too poor to afford an attorney. And just so you know, all the fee-paid attorneys I know today start their criminal defense fees at $6000.00. Can you afford that on your salary?
Mostly, I don't much care for John Oliver. But on this one, he hit it accurately enough. I was an assistant public defender for 5 years. And this is dangerously close to the working conditions we faced. We didn't have the cockroaches, but otherwise it was this miserable. Caseload was too heavy. There was no budget for investigators. My salary never reached $30,000 (from 1993 to 1998). Juries are predisposed to guilty findings, even when the evidence doesn't make sense, and more predisposed when the client is too poor to afford an attorney. And just so you know, all the fee-paid attorneys I know today start their criminal defense fees at $6000.00. Can you afford that on your salary?
ReplyDelete