Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t

This is completely hearsay, but I was told last week that at a recent negotiation between the union representing public defenders in Montana and representatives from the state, the state put forward the proposition that, for purposes of pay, public defenders are not “attorneys” — we are public defenders. This is because “attorneys” employed by the state — e.g., as attorneys general, aka, prosecutors — get a certain pay range and the state doesn’t really want to have to pay its public defenders that much. Therefore, we are not attorneys, we are something else — public defenders, of course.

Like I said, this was just a story someone who was at the meeting told me, so I don’t know how serious anyone was about this or whether it might have been a joke or just an idea floated and quickly withdrawn. Regardless, it shows that at least some people in state government either have no respect for public defenders or simply don’t understand the fundamentals of the criminal justice system.

Can anyone who was at that meeting shed any more light on this rumor? [tags]union, contract, pay, public pretender[/tags]