20

Herald & Lantern 29 lunt '83

Bar Wants Taxpayers (From Page 1 * to the judge." An average court appearance, he said, might coat $300. which is difficult for some defendants to pay. particularly if they're in (’ape May (’ounty on vacation In any case, he noted, the indigency question is not answered by the lawyer assigned to the case That attorney would like a closer review of the claims to cut down on the free case Itad, Rossi said later THK TAXPAYERS, through their municipal government, currently pay for the municipal court judge and municipal prosecutor Why shouldn't they foot the bill for the public defender, too 1 ’ Rossi asked Bieberbach and FotNbrgill replied with frowns •Something has to be done. Rossi add ed "As I said, there were 44 assignment last year and there are going to be more this year " According to his 1982 figures. Wildwood, with 27. took second place in the number of assigned indigent cases followed by Cape May and Wildwood Orest at 20 each Lower Township's case load indicates that the county load is not strictly seasonal Asked by the mayor what the bar would do if municipalities refused to hire public defenders. Rossi replied "We re trying to cut deals in each municipality so we don't have to get into litigation " He suggested that the committee discuss the matter with the* township judge and solicitor He also noted that the committee could consider hiring a public defender in cooperation with other municipalities. "We re going to review the whole thing." Bieberbach confirmed Rossi is used to the less-than-enthusiastic reception his proposal receiv ed in liower Township When he presented his case before the League of Municipalities on April 26. he said. "They grilled me at the meeting They just didn't want to hear about spending more money ” Still, he has had some success Since he began his campaign in January. Rossi has approached Middle Township and North Wildwood Middle, like Lower, is reviewing his recommendations North Wildwood decided to hire Louis Belasco as its public defender in April The borough pays him MOO a month by voucher as an independent contractor, said Rossi OCEAN CITY became the first municipality in the county to have a public defender when it hired James Crawford as an independent contractor early last year Crawford said he's paid M,200 a year by vouchers The league opposition to Rossi's proposal was based in part on the argument that municipal governments would be picking up the legal tab for defendants, most of whom would be out of towners, Crawford noted "But I think a lot of mine are Ocean City residents," he said "It's worked out pretty well here he added Ocean City Municipal Court Judge Richard Rassell agrees He said that the city's hiring of a public defender has simplified the legal complications involv ed in operating a municipal court Municipal courts hear misdemeanors, ranging from neighborhood disputes to traffic cases If’defendants in those cases face significant penalties — jail, loss of drivers' licenses or stiff fines — and if they file valid indigency claims, judges like Rassell request that att6rneys be assigned to their cases WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS i Superior Court judges, the county prosecutor, his

To Pay for Defenders

first assistant and lawyers who hold public offices like U S Rep William Hughes and county Freeholder James Kilpatrick), most of the bar association’s 107 members, including municipal court judges, were assigned to 268 indigent cases last year and the 170 heard during the first half of 1983. Those figures, however, represent the total number of cases heard in all courts of the county, not just the municipal courts The municipal judges, all but one of whom are lawyers, arc assigned cases in those courts above the municipal court level. Few of the 80 lawyers on the assignment list have challenged the claims of poverty in court Most either accept the assignment with a grumble or lodge their protests in private, Rossi explained Some of the attorneys have been assigned cases with which they have little or no expertift — a corporate lawyer assigned to a license revocation case, for instance Rassell ddmits that the indiscriminate manner of assigning indigency cases has the potential for under-representing defendants but he said he could not cite a case before him where an indigent defendant was under-represented. Rossi noted that often, when a lawyer is assigned a case in which he has little experience, that lawyer will transfer the case to another member of the law lj£m who has that expertise Still, said Rossi, the potential for malpractice suits is present. That potential is also present, however, whenever a county lawyer takes on any case, even in the range of his expertise, Rossi complained. Malpractice insurance doubled between 1982 and 1983, according to Kilpatrick. Depending on the type of coverage and deductibles, experienced lawyers, without any previous suits, pay from $600 to $1,000 a year for the insurance." ROSSI ALSO MAINTAINS that the suggested minimum fee for a municipal public defender '$125) is less than half of what an attorney could earn if a client paid for legal representation on a drunk driving defense Furthermore, indigent cases take just as much time to prepare as their paid counterparts, he pointed out "When you represent someone for free, you do just as much work as if you represented them for pay,” he said "Your ego and your client s freedom are just as much on the line." Concern for defendants' rights in the municipal courts, particularly those tourists unfamilar with the system, was what had spawned the drive for public defenders in local municipal courts. Russel] recalled "Judge (Philip A ) Gruccio expressed, during the budget process two years ago, that (he) wanted to see a public defender office instituted in municipal courts." Russell explained Ocean City was the only county municipality to immediately respond to Gruccio's directive and. when the state cut $195,000 from its public defender's budget for representing indigent clients in the higher courts, the bar association saw the need to pash for public defenders in municipal courts — to lighten the overall load Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the 1961 Gideon vs. Wainwright case in favor of public defense for indigents, the state public defender has borne respon sibility for representing poor defendants> Financial resources are so limited, however, that the state public defenders cannot fulfill that obligation. Private attorneys have therefore, been ordered to

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take up the slack NO LAW REQUIRES municipalities to hire public defenders or, for that matter, to hire prosecutors, Judges or to maintain a municipal court. But even the smallest municipality in Cape May County does maintain a court and pays its officers — except public defenders. Rossi suggested that local governments instituted municipal courts and hired judges and prosecutors for the same

reason they maintain police and public works departments — because they saw it as a responsiblity to their citizens. A forgotten part of that responsibility is the need for municipal public defenders, he maintains. "The municipal courts have been given a free ride for years,” Rossi concluded. "There’s no other profession where you’re expected to donate time to municipal government. Why should lawyers do it?”

Dorlt Ward

CAN'T DUCK THIS ONE — Judges ponder decoys displayed at Historic Cold Spring Village's second annual show last weekend. Left to right. Joan Seibert of South Dennis, Ann Galll. assistant director of the Wetlands Institute, and Fred Ferrigno of Tuckahoe.

Constance Walker— (From Page 1) diploma, had two interviews followed by two "auditions," was told "you're hired." And that was that. "I think my age is against me." she said. "She’s hung up on age," said a social agency staff member "They want young, pretty girls from Atlantic City, not old ladies from Cape May," said Walker "I applied at Playboy and found oul half the dealers were bunnies." THAT SUMMER, and subsequent summers, she worked as a motel maid, a waitress, in a doughnut shop, cleaned houses. The season over, she went to Welfare where she qualified for some assistance and food stamps In April, CETA placed her in a minimum-wage Public Service Employment (PSE) job as an aide at the airport senior center. She could have held that for 78 weeks, but she quit after 26, tak ing a position in December 1980 as collateral custodian in the Commercial Loan Department of First National State Bank of South Jersey in Pleasantville She apparently did well. Her resume includes a reference letter from assistant vice president Everett W Doerfel in which he stated, "Constance maintained firstclass, neat, accurate records and is very pleasant with customers and employes alike.” But Walker said she couldn’t afford to live in Atlantic City and was spending $44 a week for gas and tolls on a take-home paycheck of $250 every two weeks. Last June, she quit. "IT WAS A MISTAKE," she now admits, "but I couldn't keep my car running. I couldn't get there anymore.” She applied at the county vo-tech school for a Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNt course "I should love to be a nurse," she said. The cost was $800 "It was a bargain." she said. It was also more than she had. and the banks wouldn't loan it to her. "I didn't have a bank account,” she said. "I don't need one. My money’s spent before I get it away." She went on unemployment, going to its Job Service every two weeks, and also knocking on the door at CETA, which was now merged with Private Industry Council (PIC) THEY SUGGESTED an "Electronic Word Processing/Machine Transcription" course that would start March 28 and ends this Friday "I said, ‘Does it pay anything? I’m not going to put time in on a job that doesn't pay you a living ' They said, ‘It should; they are going to need people,' and I would get paid a decent wage On this understan ding, I took the course "

As part of the course, "a very nice lady from Taylor Institute came in and told as how to get jobs, how to act in an interview. She said, 'go in a business suit.' That's damned hard. I need decent shoes, a decent haircut, decent makeup. I'm unkempt You can see my poverty. I've lived on bread and potatoes and got fat I have to get thin again." For 30 hours of classroom training a week, Walker receives a stipend of the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour plus a mileage allowance. But, days away from completion, she is once more concerned that PIC will not place her in a job with decent pay. She has antagonized some by wanting to seek employment on her own. "I DON'T WANT to be strained through PIC," she said. "Their idea of placement is a little typing job at the minimum wage They think of as as typists. Typing won’t earn you a living. They’re supposed to be boosting us." Vo-tech officials have reported that two of 20 trainees in the class left, seven have been placed in on-the-job training (which usually pays $4 an hour), for positions largely secretarial and the other 11 are in "in abeyance " Walker, who has had several job interviews, is one of the 11. School officials said they hope the others can get jobs in the casino industry Training is no good if it just leads to where you were before," said Walker "Thirteen weeks to increase your typing speed?" "We pointed out that the students can t expect to go out and work eight hours a day on word processing," said a spokesman. "SHE'S NOT GOING to find money in Cape May County," said a social worker "Four or four-fifty an hour in Cape May County is doing good She’s probably going to have to go to Atlantic City. "Then she’ll have the transportation problem again," she added. "I’m going to be a bag lady in my old age," said Walker, head high. "I don’t make enough to put Social Security away I shan't stay here. I shall go walk about "