Why are attorneys leaving the Dallas Public Defender’s office?

by Scott Henson of of Grits For Breakfast

Five attorneys have resigned from the Dallas Public Defender's office in the past month thanks to oversized caseloads and pressure from the county commissioner's court to short-change clients legal representation via a new, weekly reporting system. Two of those lawyers - Mike Howard and David Woodruff - just opened their own practice, and their website includes a blog whose first post gives their reasons for leaving the PD office:

A while back the county commissioners’ court started making life difficult for the PDs for seemingly no reason. We had always been required to keep monthly stats on our docket (number of cases appointed, pending cases, cases disposed by trial, plea, revocation, et cetera) and that was okay. But then the commissioners wanted weekly stats. Why? Who knows. I mean all you have to do is divide our monthly stats by four and you have a pretty good idea what we did on a weekly basis. And because they wanted them in different formats, it meant keeping two sets of stats. And then they wanted us to use an absolutely worthless case management program. So with stats and the new program, every time I did anything, it took about three times as long as it should. When you add that on top of the legendary heavy caseload a PD juggles, it’s a recipe for disaster.

And that brings us to the caseload. Until a few months ago, there was no written rule about how many cases we had to carry. But supposedly some people weren’t carrying their weight. But instead of addressing those specific problems (if there were problem people not carrying their weight the commissioners would’ve known just who they were based on the various stats they kept), they upped the number of cases we all had to take. First it was 30 new cases a month for felony attorneys. Then 35. Then 40. 40! 40 felonies a month. And many of us handled little or no “easy” cases like probation violations. Try handling 40 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree felonies a month. All my friends outside the PDs office recognized it for what it was: madness.

So all this built up until David and I couldn’t take it. We resigned because we knew we couldn’t give all our clients the representation they deserved with the way the office was headed. And we weren’t alone. In the past month or so five attorneys have resigned. One was even board certified in criminal law. I love the PDs office with all my heart. I respect the attorneys up there and hope they’re able to right the ship. It’s a tragedy that is absolutely pointless if you ask me.

It should be mentioned that attorneys must now take 40 NEW cases each month, but without a similar statistical emphasis on dispositions. So unless they become essentially a cog in the plea mill machine, this rule insists that PDs caseloads will balloon exponentially over time, quickly devolving into absurdity with PDs expected to zealously represent hundreds of clients with serious felony cases at any one time. The commissioners court has demanded these attorneys choose between their job and their ethics to the detriment of the taxpayers and the justice system.

Good luck to Howard, Woodruff, the others who've departed and everybody they left behind at the PDs office, who are clearly going through a rough stretch. The irony is, these lawyers will continue to represent indigent defendants at the courthouse, I'm sure. The only difference will be that in both the short and long haul, their services will cost the county more.

MORE: Unfair Park, which profiled Howard a couple of years ago, comments on recent public defender defections.

Pegasus News content partner - Grits For Breakfast

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Anonymous

jtmbls, says:

So, John Wiley Price not only behaves like an idiot, he really, truly is an idiot. Nice to know.

Seriously, what district is this guy over? Does anybody know when his term is up? Somebody really needs to pull the plug on his power trip.

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1 year, 3 months ago
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Chris Kidd, says:

Problem is Dallas still runs a commissioners court, if we'd get with the times and elimate this whole ship of fools who dont have term limits, then bringing the control of these type of issues under a strong mayor system, we'd have less ALOT less issues.