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Lawyers Losing Money Representing Indigent Clients

By: Jessica Ricenrt

An attorney points out that the current state system for compensating lawyers who have indigent clients is unconstitutional and insists that the state system be changed to fairer one. In front of the seven member court, the lawyer stated the unfairness done to attorneys who must pay so that defense services are made available to the indigent people charged with crimes. The court justices' reactions and questions during his presentation showed that they sympathized with him.

The problem of compensation is seen mainly in areas where there is an insufficiency of lawyers and there are zero public defenders' offices. The creation of defense systems and the assigning of cases to lawyers become responsibilities forced upon the judges. The state is responsible for making sure that indigent criminals get a fair trial and defense.

Do lawyers have any constitutional rights? No other group of people in the United States, except lawyers, is required by the state to donate its time and wealth to the poor without adequate compensation. If the state is going to require lawyers to use up their resources for the poor, then they should require other professionals as well.

It is the duty of any attorney to provide the legal services that a client needs even if he might not get compensated well for it. It is not among the constitutional duties of the state to pay attorneys for public defender work. Providing public representation is a moral and ethical obligation of those involved in the legal profession in Kansas.

I do think lawyers are getting poorer because they represent clients who are of indigent backgrounds. The law still states that attorneys are obligated to take indigent cases, although I do sympathize with them and the problem of compensation. Attorneys have no constitutional right to earn a profit representing indigent clients.

There is an attorney who says that while he recognizes his role to help the poor, he is not willing to put himself at financial risk. A justice pointed out that when the state encountered financial problems, the rate paid to private attorneys who represented indigents was cut down whereas the budgets of the public defenders' offices remained the same.

Attorneys under the federal system provided legal representation to their clients without any compensation, just like the current situation of the state, the justice said. There now is a federal public defenders' system.

According to the constitution, the accused is entitled to adequate legal representation, yet the fact that attorneys are suffering financially because they spend their own money to provide legal services may result in insufficient legal representation of their clients. There will then be a toss up between the situation of your finances or your client's constitutional rights. When defendants don't get a fair trial, then their constitutional right is violated.

Being given a client to represent used to be considered honorable. Other kinds of legal counsel came into the picture. A good horse to death is what this system is riding on. Doing a certain amount of work for free is something I'd be willing to do. But this thing has simply gotten out of hand.

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