We try not to be too preachy these days, but the conduct of Grant County, WA, public defender Thomas J. Earl is simply shameful. He was disbarred last week by the Washington State Supreme Court for, among other things, soliciting thousands of dollars each from indigent defendants for work already paid for by the County. (See law.com NewsWire, Private Billing Public Defender, 05-11-04)As the Seattle Times reported on Saturday:
“Earl defended thousands of accused felons in 18 years of public-defense work and previously handled or farmed out all court-appointed work in Grant County Superior Court under a $500,000-a-year contract. . . .
“By carrying a crushing caseload that eclipsed limits recommended by bar groups, Earl maximized his income while leaving little time for each client. Over the years, his income for public-defense work climbed from $40,000 to $80,000 to six figures. In 2002, he retained about $255,000 after paying other public defenders, The Seattle Times found. “
Earl handled over 400 felony cases in 2003. The state bar guidelines advise a limit of 150 felonies per year.
If it took a Seattle Times expose’ to get disciplinary action started, the Washington Bar should be ashamed, too.
David-I posted on this guy a while back on MyShingle, but here I would have to agree with the disciplinary action. What really gets me about this case is that even though the attorneys were carrying more than the recommended number of cases, they were also being compensated a pretty good rate. There are many solos who’d love to start a practice with a guaranteed $100,000 (or even $50,000) contract to work criminal cases – and who would find a way to do it efficiently and competently. The fact that Earl’s contract kept getting renewed is nothing short of unbelievable.
Comment by Carolyn Elefant — May 11, 2004 @ 11:46 am
David-I posted on this guy a while back on MyShingle, but here I would have to agree with the disciplinary action. What really gets me about this case is that even though the attorneys were carrying more than the recommended number of cases, they were also being compensated a pretty good rate. There are many solos who’d love to start a practice with a guaranteed $100,000 (or even $50,000) contract to work criminal cases – and who would find a way to do it efficiently and competently. The fact that Earl’s contract kept getting renewed is nothing short of unbelievable.
Comment by Carolyn Elefant — May 11, 2004 @ 11:46 am
Ditto to David’s comment that the Washington Bar should be ashamed for not catching this itself, leaving it up to the media to expose.
The particularly outrageous aspect of this case is that most public defenders are overworked and underpaid. This lawyer surely damaged efforts to address that problem.
Comment by UCL — May 11, 2004 @ 12:04 pm
Ditto to David’s comment that the Washington Bar should be ashamed for not catching this itself, leaving it up to the media to expose.
The particularly outrageous aspect of this case is that most public defenders are overworked and underpaid. This lawyer surely damaged efforts to address that problem.
Comment by UCL — May 11, 2004 @ 12:04 pm