THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505030009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
I am disgusted with the pompous rhetoric contained in recent news articles and an editorial concerning the low compensation for Virginia's court-appointed defense attorneys. I don't recall there being anything mentioned about a guarantee of exorbitant fees for court-appointed attorneys' services in the pursuit of justice.
Perhaps instead of viewing court-appointed clients as burdens and threats to the financial well-being, they should be viewed as contributing to the betterment of society. It is not the fee structure which ``. . . (stacks) the deck against one class . . . the poor''; it is the lawyers, who willingly admit to poor representation for the indigent.
The author of one article would like for us to believe that an increase in the maximum or even the elimination of the regulated fees will guarantee competent representation to all people, when in fact it would succeed only in further burdening the state and taxpayers with no guarantee that these same attorneys will put forth one ounce more effort.
Thousands of college-educated people walk the streets every day seeking the jobs which will pay a fraction of the wages which were scoffed at by the author of your editorial. The refusal to provide competent representation to the people, indigent or not, appears to be a violation of ethics and may be more worthy of further investigation than the current fee structure.
Perhaps the public would be interested in knowing which attorneys refuse to take public-defense cases so they can evaluate whether they want to be represented by someone who is truly interested in the law and justice, or one who is only willing to seek the truth to the extent their clients can afford to pay.
M. J. WROTEN
Suffolk, April 19, 1995 by CNB