Legal world protest for what many say is a broken criminal justice system. Checkit: Missouri's Public Defender Orders The Governor To Legally Represent A...
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- The Management
Lawyers can be made slaves?
ReplyDeleteI thought slavery ended.
Imagine the poor defendant with a lawyer who does not even want to be there.
The public defender operation in Missouri is a pathetic joke which can't be fixed by just putting more money into a dysfunctional unaccountable system.
ReplyDeleteInstead of appointing an individual who's been on government staffs his whole career like the current person in charge, Nixon would be well-advised to bring in someone from the outside, take an objective look at how the operation has been run, establish some standards and accountability, and then consider financial adjustments.
Nixon turned down just increasing the budget, so this is payback.
The notion that indigent defendants get any actual legal representation in the courts is simply not true.
6:09, lawyers are frequently appointed to represent juvenile court defendants without pay. Whether that's slavery or a professional obligation is a matter of opinion.
ReplyDeletePublic defenders are underpaid and overworked, and the legislature keeps ignoring the problem. I think appointing Governor Nixon is a clever ploy.
That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteLike most dysfunctional public agencies, the KCMO water department comes to mind, the ONLY recommendation that is ever made is that there's too much work and not enough money.
ReplyDeleteAnd like many other agencies, you could pour unlimited amounts into a poorly managed, dysfunctional, and unaccountable organization and what you'd get would be a more expensive dysfunctional operation.
What has been done to get better results from the resources they already have?
What specific steps have been taken to hold their attorneys accountable?
What is the track record of their representation?
Maybe the folks "managing" the PD operation should offer some specific proposals as to why more resources would be likely to achieve better results rather than just repeating the same old line year after year. In fact, maybe that would make it more likely that the governor and legislature would pay more attention to them.