Private Lawyers Left Dry as County Work Evaporates

When attorney Jerome Goldfein took a contract to represent indigent clients in cases where the Orange County public defender’s office had a conflict of interest, his logic was simple:

Even though the county paid less than private defense work, Goldfein reasoned, he could count on the income. Until now.

As part of sweeping budget cuts triggered by the county’s bankruptcy, officials have virtually gutted the alternate defense fund, canceling contracts with lawyers and splitting the public defender’s office in three so that it can handle the conflict cases itself. Count Goldfein among the casualties.

“We’ve cut back on advertising, we’ve cut back on promotion, because we knew we could rely on this steady source of income coming in,” said Goldfein, 52, who handled 180 cases--more than half his load--for the county last year. “Now all of a sudden, almost overnight, they tell me it’s gone.”

Like many of the nearly 50 lawyers who handled 3,000 cases a year for the county through alternate defense, Goldfein is a former deputy public defender. He picked up the contract for the Municipal Court in Westminster in 1986, a few years after leaving the public defender’s office.

Under the contract, attorneys earn about $350 for a misdemeanor and $450 for a felony that is settled before it goes to a preliminary hearing. They are paid about $1,000 for a preliminary hearing and the first day of a felony trial, and $340 per trial day after that. While those fees pale in comparison to the $2,500 or $5,000 most criminal defense lawyers command as a retainer for a felony case, they can add up quickly.

“You thought you had the security of working for the county. Now that security is gone,” complained Max De Liema, another former deputy public defender who has worked under the contract in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel since 1980. “It’s essentially a layoff. There was a meeting last week (of the alternate defense attorneys). The mood was very somber. It was like you were being fired.”

Based on recommendations from its three-person management council--which includes Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi--the Board of Supervisors slashed some 60% of the $12.7-million alternate defense budget, effective Tuesday.

Many attorneys involved said they are worried not only about their own jobs but also about the ability of already overworked public defenders to take on additional cases. Making the situation worse is the increasing number of felonies that go to trial because of the “three strikes and you’re out” law.

Several of those holding contracts said they were particularly irked because they got no warning of the imminent end.

“It is quite a jolt, frankly,” said Martin J. Heneghan, who works under the contract in Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

“We’d have all agreed to take some sort of cutback,” added George Peters, who said his practice is nearly 90% contracted cases. “But nobody ever asked us.”