A national legal organization has cited Lynnwood Municipal Court as one of many across the United States where defendants aren’t getting the legal advice they should because there aren’t enough publicly subsidized defense lawyers.
A report issued late last month by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said Lynnwood’s courtroom has too few defense attorneys for the number of defendants who need their services before entering a plea.
Report researchers spent time the first week of March 2008 watching the court, which handles non-felony cases, in action.
“They had more than 100 people with two lawyers in a four hour period,” said the report’s lead author, Seattle University law professor Bob Boruchowitz. “I don’t care how good you are, you can’t do 50 guilty pleas in a four hour period.”
Lynnwood officials say the city has improved the way it handles defendants over the past year.
“We believe we do a good job,” said court administrator Jill O’Cain, “and we agree that we’re a very busy court.”
Some of the steps the court is taking include adding arraignment and pre-trial hearings each week and holding some hearings at City Hall Council Chambers.
“I think Judge (Stephen) Moore’s diligent about ensuring people understand what their rights are,” she said.
The Association report reviewed misdemeanor courts in seven states and concluded that “misdemeanor courts across the country are incapable of providing accused individuals with the due process guaranteed them by the constitution. As a result, every year literally millions of accused misdemeanants, overwhelmingly those unable to hire private counsel, and disproportionately people of color, are denied their constitutional right to equal justice.”
O’Cain said court-appointed defense attorneys, who are paid by the city, now remain in the courtroom until every defendant has had their questions answered.
“The old system was they were left talking to the judge on their own without legal assistance,” said city defense attorney James Feldman. The city changed that policy in mid 2007, nearly a year before Boruchowitz paid the court a visit.
In 2007, the Washington State Office of Public Defense provided the city a $75,000 grant so it could hire an additional defense attorney to interview defendants held in custody at the city jail, prior to their first court appearance.
Last year, however, the city didn’t receive a grant.
“We did a follow-up visit to the courts … and in Lynnwood, the defense attorneys didn’t appear to be actually representing the clients in initial court appearance hearings,” said Joanne Moore, Office of Public Defense director. “So the next year, we decided not to give Lynnwood funds, but to use the limited state funding for other, more high-impact purposes in other cities.”
O’Cain said the city has since added additional funding for public defense to its budget.
Feldman said much of the court caseload could be reduced simply by allowing the most common charge heard in the courtroom — driving while license suspended in the third degree — to be dealt with in other ways.
Boruchowitz’s report said in January 2008, defense lawyers at Lynnwood Municipal Court handled 104 cases, of which 36, or 34.6 percent, were DWLS.
He said in his site visit, 132 defendants were represented by two defense attorneys in 3 ½ hours. Some defendants asked the judge to continue their hearing so they could meet with a lawyer “but over half did not,” he said, “so more than half stipulated to the finding of the police report.”
Such representation, he said, is far too common across the United States.
“There are thousands of people who, had they been properly represented, would either not have pled guilty or would have pled guilty to something less serious.”
To ease the burden on courts, the criminal defense lawyers association has recommended driving while license suspended cases be diverted out of the courtroom and treated as non-crimes.
Prosecutors, he said, “could send a letter to everyone accused and tell them ‘we’re going to work two to three months with people and give the option of community service.” Once they complete the required task, their driving record could be wiped clean.
The city of Seattle as well as King County have adopted such diversion programs and saved money, he said.
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