Scapegoat

I was wondering this week why it is that public defenders are always blamed when things do not go smoothly. I mean, it is hard to negotiate a plea bargain in advance of trial when the prosecutor refuses to return phone-calls until the week of trial. Nonetheless, it is somehow my fault when we must schedule a change of plea the day before trial. When the State provides a witness list with 6 new witnesses the week before trial, and I request a continuance to allow time to speak to them, the Judge becomes angry that I did not interview them earlier and denies the continuance. He then tells me, when I file a motion to exclude the new witnesses as they were not timely disclosed that I filed the motion in bad faith! When my client wants his day in court on a case he is likely to lose, the fact that the judge and the DA must "waste" time on the trial is my fault. Don't I know that my job as a public defender is to brow-beat my client into taking a plea that he doesn't want to? When the judge schedules trials every day for 2 weeks, it's my fault that he has to have trial every day! When the prosecutor submits incorrect paperwork to the court, it's my job to fix it. When the court loses track of a case and it takes forever to get resolved, it's my fault for not bringing it to the Court's attention. Never mind the fact that it was never my case to begin with. When a defendant never applies for a public defender, and does not come to court, it's somehow my job to get him notice for the next court date. Forget the fact I haven't got the foggiest notion where he might be or how to get a hold of him. When 10 new cases are added to the morning docket a half hour before court, it's my job to handle the cases for the attorneys who are not present because they had no idea those cases were going to be called. When the psychologist who does our competency evaluations is slow in getting the reports finished because she was in a car accident and required several surgeries, it's my job to get the reports to the court in a week, or else the court will hold the hearings anyway. Because, of course those public defenders are always raising competency to play some kind of game.

It's just that I get so tired of doing my job in addition to so many other people's! I wish I could just answer for things that are within my control, instead of answering for other people all the time. I mean how is the court's calendar my problem? How am I supposed to get prosecutors to produce discovery and negotiate pleas with me in a timely fashion when they can't manage to look at their files more than a week before trial? Why am I held to answer for how other attorneys handle their cases? How is any of this my fault? Why must I spend half my time trying to fix all of this?

Well, that was quite the rant. I'll be better tomorrow.