Vol. 78, No. 7, July
2005
Help the SPD; Earn Free CLE
Accept five cases as assigned by the State Public Defender and not
only will you be assisting people accused of a crime and helping to make
our justice system more accessible, but you also will earn free CLE from
the State Bar.
by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director
Recently, I did a quick, thoroughly unscientific, survey of
plumbing rates. Specifically, I talked with three plumbing companies in
the Madison area. Trip charges averaged $39, and repair rates averaged
$90 per hour, charged in half-hour increments. Rates for overtime work,
meaning after 4:30 or 5 p.m. or on weekends, were at least 1.5 times the
regular rates.
Compare that to the $40 per hour earned by lawyers representing
people accused of committing crimes.
The Wisconsin Legislature sets the hourly rate paid by the Office of
the State Public Defender (SPD) to private bar attorneys taking SPD
assignments. Since 1995, the state has limited the SPD to paying $40 per
hour, with $25 per hour for travel time. The type of case doesn't
matter. If office overhead takes between 40 percent to 60 percent of
your hourly rate, and you have to buy your benefits, including vacation,
you can quickly see why few lawyers take these cases full-time.
This year, the SPD ran out of money in February, so lawyers have not
been paid for any work done since then and won't get paid until the
governor signs the new biennial budget bill.
Is it any wonder why Deborah Smith, director of the SPD Assigned
Counsel Division, is desperate for help?
Enter State Bar of Wisconsin CLE.
Knowing the increasing difficulty the SPD was having in recruiting
new assigned counsel and the growing numbers of attorneys who could not
afford to take more cases, Tom Dixon, State Bar CLE director, approached
Deb Smith about developing a program to encourage attorneys to take more
SPD cases.
The program works like this. If you are an attorney who has never
taken an SPD case or you have not taken an SPD case in the last two
years and you volunteer to take at least five cases as assigned by the
SPD, you will receive a certificate from the State Bar that is good for
one free State Bar CLE seminar.
Since the program's inception, more than 81 new assigned counsel have
taken at least five public defender cases each, for a total of more than
400 cases. By mid-June, State Bar CLE had awarded more than $16,000
worth of State Bar CLE seminar certificates to these attorneys.
To volunteer for SPD case assignments, contact Attorney Deborah Smith
at the Office of the State Public Defender, (608) 261-8856. To learn
more about becoming certified to take public defender cases and other
requirements, access the SPD Web site (www.wisspd.org).
Wisconsin Lawyer