As much justice as you can buy for $9

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Friday, June 03, 2016, 9:58 pm

You may think that you have the right to an attorney—after all, it’s tucked right there in the Sixth Amendment and you hear it repeated on all the best cop shows. But the nature of that “right” changes a lot depending on where you live and who you are. For Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, public representation comes from $6500 a day hotshots who have already burned up a $1.2 million budget to keep him safe, despite the fact that he doesn’t yet face any charges. But a typical person unable to afford their own attorney is more likely to find something like this situation in Louisiana.

Carson would like to hire more lawyers, but he hardly has the money for those already on the payroll. When trying to solicit the help of local attorney Anna Ferguson, he initially offered her $1,000 for every 100 cases she accepted, or $10 per case. In January 2015, he cut wages by 10 percent and eliminated travel funds.

A nine dollar lawyer. That’s what you get. That’s for your hearing, your trial, any research, locating witnesses … nine dollars. It’s common for defendants, even those in cases involving serious crimes, to not even see their attorney until they enter court. And it’s getting worse. In Louisiana, more than 85 percent of all cases require public defenders, and in almost every district, that system is teetering on collapse.

The average time a public defender in New Orleans spends on a case: seven minutes. That’s roughly the time that you’ve already spent on this article.

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