PD Office Paraphernalia Wish List

I have to say that my iphone is the best paraphernalia (legal or otherwise) I've ever owned. I can schedule appointments with my clients in court and have the appointment transferred to my work calendar complete with a reminder (I've had phones that were supposed to do this before, but somehow it never worked out). I can also research a quick PC issue at the stinky docket via the internet, or text someone (like in the middle of trial) and have them email me a case. Every phone number in the county directory is magically on my phone. I can also make graffiti.



During a tedious calendar call, I can morph myself onto the statue of liberty to annoy nearby prosecutors.













My precious needs a comfy chair.





















This is the only Bluetooth handset that my phone finds acceptable.





















To keep the iphone's living space clean, a zamboni-desk vacuum.



But there is one place that I won't take my phone, and unfortunately this is where I have my best trial ideas.

My Own Private Idaho

The state of Idaho filed its answer to Former Idaho Transportation Director Pam Lowe's lawsuit for wrongful termination, according to this news story. Ms. Lowe claimed, among other wrongs, that a Transportation Official commented during her hiring process, "No little girl would be able to run this department," and also asked, "What are we going to do when she decides to start a family?"

In its response to the suit, filed this weekend, Idaho denied that the statements were made, but "any such statements if made ... would have been made more than 2 1/2 years before the Board's decision-making process to terminate Plaintiff." It is funny that my indigent clients usually understand what the state of Idaho can't: It's best to pick one defense--either you didn't kill the guy, or you killed him in self-defense. But not--you didn't kill the guy, but even if you did it was self-defense.

Although it is impossible to judge a lawsuit from newspaper reports, I offer a personal story for some remote Inland Northwest perspective.

How to be a Public Defender Revolutionary, Part II

Yesterday, Part I: Read the following publications:

ABA Formal Opinion 06-441

and

ABA Eight Guidelines

(because they provide that public defenders have the right and ethical duty to decline to accept excessive caseloads)

Today, Part II: Caseload Standards

I n the early days, I thought I could handle almost any caseload. After working through those first trials (you know the ones, where you drive to your office at 4:00 a.m., thinking, please let me be involved in a minor car crash where I am hospitalized for long enough to avoid the trial but maybe please not permanently disfigured) I thought I was hot shit. Sure I was in emergency-mode 90 percent of the time, and in bar-mode the other 10, but I thrived on emergencies, I thought.

For my fellow public defenders and me, it was a sign of toughness to have too much heaped on us, to shoot from the hip, and to kick the state's ass some, too. The longer I've "practiced" at this job, though, the more I know that most of us have too many cases, regardless of whether we exceed any official caseload standards, and having too many cases doesn't make us tough, it beats us down.

The first thing I have to say about caseload standards is: 1) They are manufactured crap, pulled out of thin air; and 2) it is really important that we have them.

How to Be a Public Defender Revolutionary, Part I

Step I: Read these two ABA Publications:

ABA Formal Opinion 06-441 (Ethical Obligations of Lawyers who Represent Indigent Criminal Defendants When Excessive Caseloads Interfere with Competent and Diligent Representation)

and

ABA Eight Guidelines of Public Defense Related to Excessive Workloads

"If workload prevents a lawyer from providing competent and diligent representation to existing clients, she must not accept new clients."

--ABA Formal Opinion 06-441 (2006) Ethical Obligations of Lawyers Who Represent Indigent Criminal Defendants When Excessive Caseloads Interfere With Competent and Diligent Representation

We have the power to stop excessive caseloads. We have this power because two reports—the ABA’s 2006 Formal Opinion 06-441, Relating to Excessive Caseloads and its 2009 follow-up: Eight Guidelines of Public Defense Related to Excessive Workloads—give us the authority and ammunition to end the wide-spread reality of untenable caseloads. These publications provide that public defenders have the right and the duty to decline new clients when caseloads are unreasonable. As with our clients, though, our rights won’t do us much good if we don’t use them.

Blogkeeping Notes No. 2

This weekend, I made a new graffiti banner for PDR, to replace the one I had made on my iphone. For anyone with an interest in graphic design, I learned from this tutorial, which amounted to five hours of my life spent with a 12-year-old computer whiz via YouTube video. When I first found the video, I read a comment that said, "you fucking dick not so fast." I thought, "My, how rude to curse a young man nice enough make a free educational film."

After at least 5 hours spent pausing and replaying and backing up and playing 2 seconds of the 10 minute spot, all I have to say is, "Slow down, asswipe!"

Real Lawyers Have Business Cards

We here at PDR are true-blue public defenders, but sometimes we have private-attorney lust in our hearts. Not for money, or respect, or to be able to cut in front of the public defenders in court--no, sometimes our thoughts stray because we want to make our own kick-ass business cards.

This one would look nice with a PDR logo? Pretty, but still tough.


This one just needs a defender gal with a briefcase:




Clients might appreciate this card that comes with lock-picking tools:




Here is what happens if you don't pay:



What we promise to do to the state's case:



The service we provide:



After the case is resolved, we can send our clients away with all of their legal papers in a nifty PDR bag:

Overheard at the Public Defenders' Office

IRRITATED CLIENT: All you do is keep talking about my criminal history, throwing it in my face ...

PUBLIC DEFENDER: But this is your third strike ...