Several of Georgia's most prominent defense attorneys on Thursday urged a Fulton County judge to keep an ailing public defender program from firing four full-time attorneys.
Contract staff would replace the lawyers.
The program created a statewide network of full-time attorneys to represent Georgia's poor.
Critics say the move could set an "unconscionable" precedent. They say the step threatens the program's mission by slipping back to a much-maligned system of contract attorneys that once represented Georgia's indigent.
"This is not about the right of lawyers to have a job," said Stephen Bright, director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. "It's about the right of clients to be represented."But the system's administrators facing budget cuts say their hands are tied, and replacing permanent attorneys with private sector staffers is a necessary reality in a tough economy.
"It's sad for the four lawyers who got laid off. It's certainly unfortunate," said Devon Orland, a state attorney. "But in this state, there's no right to have a job."The indigent defense program was created in 2003 to replace a patchwork system in which some counties assigned indigent defense cases to attorneys with little experience or knowledge of criminal defense.
The new statewide system started in 2005 and was applauded in legal circles, but it has earned only lukewarm support from state legislators. Concerned that administrators are mismanaging public dollars, they have cut funding to the system from $42 million to $35 million over the last three years.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland is expected to rule in the case next week.
Click here for more GPB News about Georgia legal affairs.
(The Associated Press)
