ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Checking Out the Lawyer Market

William W. Stewart appears to be a busy man. He imports lobsters and fruit from Colombia, where he spends a good amount of time. He once hoped to ship Marlboro cigarettes to Russia. And he has the Orange County Central Court contract to represent some defendants unable to pay for their own attorneys, a contract that brought his law firm about $700,000 last year.

There is nothing wrong with any of that. But after 15 years, Stewart’s contract to represent indigent defendants is getting some overdue scrutiny in legal circles and at the Hall of Administration. The question is: Would the courts be served better by having a different firm handle the contract for cases that cannot be handled by the public defender’s office? By his own account, Stewart has not appeared much in court here for the past four years. He is a businessman as well as a lawyer and takes his cut from the contract, farming out most of the work to other lawyers, as he is allowed to do. Some judges have said they would like more lawyers from Stewart’s firm available, to avoid delays in court.

The Central Court judges plan to meet today to consider putting Stewart’s contract, which will expire next year, out for bid. They should. It is time to see whether some other law firm could provide just as good a defense for less money.

Stewart has argued that his firm has been a good defender of the poor, and no one has contradicted that. We won’t know whether the county could save by using another competent firm unless the matter goes out to bid.

The cost to taxpayers of hiring lawyers for defendants unable to pay their own attorneys has been a perennial and valid concern of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The public defender’s office has a budget of about $18 million a year. When that office has a conflict of interest, outside attorneys must represent a defendant. That costs Orange County more than $11 million a year. There is no way to avoid payments, since all defendants are entitled to a competent lawyer, but the judges and supervisors owe it to the county to hold down costs where they can.