MANSFIELD — Richland County commissioners said Tuesday indigent defendants requiring court-appointed counsel will continue to be served, even as more than 30 local attorneys begin a boycott of the process over pay.
After an hour-long meeting, which included veteran local defense attorney Bernie Davis, commissioners said their plan remains in place to revisit in December the per-hour payments for attorneys, as well as maximum amounts allowed (caps) on individual cases.
Davis, conversely, said the attorneys whose boycott began Tuesday, have no plans to meet to reconsider their decision.
Vero said two of the attorneys who signed the letter have since changed their minds. He also said court administrators have identified seven attorneys from Franklin County and two from Delaware County willing to accept local court-appointed work. He said the court is continuing to look for additional attorneys.
Vero said there may be a “bump” in terms of the court’s docket, but administrators were confident they could proceed.
It wasn’t immediately known how the boycott may impact other local courts, including Richland County Juvenile Court, Domestic Relations Court and Mansfield Municipal Court.
In August, commissioners agreed to increase the fees, effective Jan. 1, the first such increase in almost two decades.
Commissioners voted unanimously in August to eliminate the current two-tiered system that now pays court-appointed attorneys $60 an hour for work done in the court and $50 for work performed outside the court.
That system, which has been in place for more than three decades, will be replaced with one that pays $60 per hour across the board for the legal work. Commissioners said Tuesday that represents a 12 percent pay increase.
The decision comes after the state in July, in its new biennial budget, increased the amount of money it will reimburse counties for court-appointed attorney fees. That higher reimbursement amount takes effect this week.
The state recommendation was to increase attorneys’ fees to $75 per hour across the board, which 12 counties now do, though none of those 12 are in north central Ohio.
Previously, the county has been reimbursed at about 42 percent for indigent defense work.
Laura Austen, deputy director for policy and outreach for the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, attended Tuesday’s meeting and said she was confident that reimbursement rate would be around 70 percent under the new state budget, calling that a conservative estimate.
Commissioner Tony Vero said commissioners felt blindsided by the boycott. He distributed e-mails from the presiding judge of Richland County Common Pleas Court and the county Bar Association saying they were in agreement with the December fee review.
“Your willingness to revisit the matter (in December) is not only reasonable and responsible, but most welcomed by all the Courts and participating attorneys,” Probate Court Judge Philip Alan Mayer said in an e-mail to Vero on Aug. 27.
Richland County Bar Association President Nick Atterholt, in an e-mail to Vero on the same day, wrote, “I agree with Judge Mayer’s sentiments.”
Vero said Tuesday, “I thought we were in lockstep with the judges and local bar association.”
Davis said neither Atterholt didn’t speak for the attorneys who signed the boycott letter.
“He doesn’t stand for the people that do the lifting here that are on the letter. He does some other kind of work. He may do a little misdemeanor work, but the people that are on that letter is everybody who is on your felony court-appointed list,” Davis said.
“The people on that letter, we got together, and that was our decision,” Davis said, adding they had communicated the boycott plan to Judges Brent Robinson and Phil Naumoff.
“We went to the judges. We were going through them. They knew back then (in August) that if this isn’t addressed, this is going to be our action,” Davis said. “We have made that clear to both judges all along.”
Davis, who said he has been practicing law for 46 years, said it takes a minimum of $40 an hour to operate a “bare bones” law office.
“That means $20 an hour at the most in each one of our pockets. I am qualified to do every kind of case there is, and I’m working for $20 an hour? That’s not fair and it’s not fair for the rest of the bar. All we’re asking for is a fair shake and we don’t feel we’re getting it,” Davis said.
“We knew you were getting (additional reimbursement) starting in October. We knew, according to you back in March, you didn’t want to make money off our backs. Well, you’re going to make some money on our backs the way it stands right now. There is no way $60 an hour is adequate for the work we do. It just isn’t,” Davis said.
Vero said commissioners’ fiscal responsibility extends beyond fees paid for attorneys representing indigent clients.
“While indigent defense is a portion of our budget, we have a responsibility to the rest of the county to the tune of a $35 million general fund. While that specific issue is important to you, we wanted to see how the rest of the year would shake out (in terms of budget),” Vero said.
“The line in the sand from the local bar association to me doesn’t seem to make sense when the plan was for me to all along to sit down with the judges to talk about (per hour rates and also caps on individual cases). I was going to come back with a recommendation … most likely, I was prepared to recommend raising these rates again,” Vero said.
Commissioner Darrell Banks said he was offended by the boycott.
“We said we were probably going to raise rates and the caps in December and that’s what we’re going to do,” Banks said to Davis. “I am disappointed you boycotted us. The taxpayers of this county deserve a little better than that when you know we’re going to sit down and discuss it.”
In their boycott letter, the attorneys said they would complete all cases assigned prior to Oct. 15, under the terms of the current agreement.
“Should the Richland County Commissioners adopt and enact a resolution adopting the recommendations in TOTAL the undersigned will remain on the court appointed lists at the new rate of $75 per hour and caps,” the attorneys wrote in the letter.
Attorneys who signed the boycott letter are Davis, Terry Hitchman, Darin Avery, Anica Blazef, James Blunt, Sean Boone, John Boyd, Ralph Bove, Joshua Brown, Byron Corley, Ed Corley, Brandon Crunkilton, Jodie Dees, John Dilts, Randall Frye, Roeliff Harper, George Keyser, Ben Kitzler, Cassandra Mayer, James Mayer III, Dale Musilli, John O’Donnell, Jeanne Pitzer, Charles Robinson, Jonathan Spaulding, Greg Tarkowsky, Glenda Thompson, Jerry Thompson, James Tyree, David Watson, Robert Whitney, Rolf Whitney, Allen Werstiuk and Marcus Wolf.
