Lauren_Anderson

Great question. This morning a judge said the answer to that question is that the state can't....http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/04/orleans_judge_rules_for_indige.html#incart_m-rpt-2

You not only have a right to a lawyer, you have a right to effective representation, a speedy trial, and certainly the right not to languish in jail indefinitely without an effective lawyer. An effective lawyer is one who has the tools they need to represent you and your case (including investigation, motions practice, trial preparation, jail visits, experts, and so forth), not just a warm body to stand next to you in court.

I think we had 78 at the height of our numbers and honestly that is probably what is needed for us to do our job the way it is supposed to be done.

All of our clients and cases are important. There is an element of triage in what we do because of how many clients we have. There are constant moments of crisis requiring your attention. However, I'd like to think that my clients who are in their moments of crisis in misdemeanor court maybe spending 3 days in jail have the same rights as my clients facing years in prison. To that individual, my attention is valuable. There are constant roadblocks...access to Brady material, discovery, getting body cameras months into a case, high case loads, hours of waits at the jail. Culturally, I think our city is very great and struggles for the same reason: Louisiana is extremely insular. We have so many amazing traditions that we embrace that you can't find anywhere else in the country (see e.g. our food, music, and art) but at the same time there are many things we don't embrace that we desperately need to such as strides in criminal justice reform, mental health care, and substance abuse.

Its not a matter of money necessarily that is causing us to refuse the more serious cases. I'll let Derwyn chime in on this for sure, but a big reason is that we don't have enough experienced attorneys to accept the more complex cases right now. You can't assign a first year attorney to a murder case. They don't have the experience. Not only will that person not get fair representation, but the case will inevitably come back on appeal for that very reason later, costing even more money down the road. It's about $91 a day I believe for inmates to stay in jail, so either way you cut it this is absolutely not the solution. Not only is the state spending a ton of money to keep people in jail, but they are setting themselves up for many very expensive cases later on down the road in the appeals stage.

We are the underdog. We represent people who are accused of crimes, people of color, the poor, people who suffer from substance abuse issues, mental health problems, the homeless. We represent people who are part of a system. The economy restrains everything....healthcare, education, infrastructure...but we aren't often a priority.