97. Attorney Discipline, C AL . B AR J. (Feb. 1996), available at http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/2cbj/96feb/2cbj29.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 98. Washington State Bar Association, Discipline Notice for Thomas Jay Earl, available at http://pro.wsba.org/PublicView-Dis- cipline.asp?Usr_Discipline_ID=594 (last visited Mar. 14, 2009). Mr. Earl abandoned his appeal, so there is no Supreme Court opinion. 99. Id. 100. See City of Seattle Ordinance 121501 (June 14, 2004). 101. Even though the 380 level is one of the lowest in the country, some defenders feel it still is too high. A lawyer from one of the other King County defender offices noted that the 380 caseload standard did not allow effective representation, and stated in her survey response: “The caseload standard is too high, and it results in us very often not being able to do as much for each client as we’d like to do.” She added that the greatest challenge in the practice is “doing justice to each case when there is such an overwhelming case- load.” 102. M ASS . G EN . L AWS A NN ., Ch. 211D, §11 (2008). 103. W IS . S TAT . A NN . § 977.08(bn) (2008). 104. See Keeping Public Defender Caseloads Manageable , supra , n. 76. at 13-14. 105. Id. at 14. 106. See, e.g., ABA Ethics Opinion 06-411, supra. n. 92; ACCD Ethics Opinion 03-01, supra. n. 92. 107. See Jim Seckler, Judge Allows Public Defender to Withdraw from 39 Felony Cases , M OHAVE D AILY N EWS (Dec. 18, 2007). 108. A copy of this order is available in the online appendix at www.nacdl.org/misdemeanor. 109. See Pleadings, available at http://www.pdmiami.com/ExcessiveWorkload/Excessive_Workload_Pleadings.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 110. See Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Public Defender’s Motion to Appoint Other Counsel in Unappointed Non- capital Felony Cases, Circuit Court of Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County Florida (Sept. 3, 2008), at 4, available at http://www.pdmiami.com/Order_on_motion_to_appoint_other_counsel.pdf (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 111. Id. at 6. 112. Other offices have motions pending. Beginning in 2007, the Knoxville, Tennessee, public defender asked the court to cease appointing his office to any further misdemeanor cases so that he could reassign attorneys to handle a large backlog of felony cases. See Jamie Satterfield, Public Defender Battles Load , K NOXVILLE N EWS S ENTINEL (July 19, 2007). The battle has continued for more than a year, with the state attorney general and court administrator’s office opposing the effort. See Jamie Satterfield, Staffing Again an Issue for Defender , K NOXVILLE N EWS S ENTINEL (June 30, 2008). In 2007, the defenders office had 22 attorneys handling a caseload of approximately 12,500 per year (or 568 cases per attorney). See Caseload Data 2007, Knoxville County Public Defender Office, avail- able at http://www.pdknox.org/800main.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). Assuming the caseload was exclusively misdemeanors, the case- loads would have been approximately one and a half times national standards. In actuality it was much worse. Almost one-fourth of the caseload was felony cases. See id. A misdemeanor public defender in the office filed an affidavit in connection with the motion that stated: In misdemeanor court, my caseload assignment is determined by the docket on the particular day I am in court. … I do not personally count the number of cases I have on a given day. Over the course of the last few years, I have been in court representing as few as 8 and as many as 50 defendants on a given day. Some defendants have only one charge, others have multiple charges. … [A]ccording to [our computer case counting system] between Janu- ary 7, 2008, and February 6, 2008, I closed approximately 107 cases. According to [the same program], between January 7, 2008 and February 6, 2008, I was assigned 120 new misdemeanor cases[.] Affidavit of Joseph W. Ramsey, available at http://www.pdknox.org/800main.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). As of March 2, 2009, the court still has not issued a ruling on the public defender’s motion. 113. Ligda v. Superior Court of Solano County, 85 Cal. Rptr. 744, 754 (1970). 114. Betancourt v. Bloomberg , 448 F.3d 547, 554 (2nd Cir. 2006), cert. denied 2006 U.S. Lexis 8666 (2006) (upholding arrest for sleeping in a cardboard box against constitutional vagueness challenge). 115. See 21 N.Y.C.R.R. § 1050.7; see also Man Hauled Off by Cops for Using 2 Subway Seats , W ORLD N ET D AILY (July 19, 2003), available at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33662 (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 116. 21 N.Y.C.R.R. §1050.10. 117. See AP, In Orlando, a Law Against Feeding Homeless — and Debate Over Samaritans’Rights , Associated Press (Feb. 3, 2007), available at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/04/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-Do-Not-Feed-the-Homeless.php (last visited Mar. 16, 2009). The same AP article reported, “In Fairfax County, Virginia, homemade meals and meals made in church kitchens may not be distributed to the homeless unless first approved by the county. … ‘We’ve seen cities going beyond punishing homeless people to punishing those trying to help them, even though it’s clear that not enough resources are being dedicated to helping the homeless or the hungry,’ said Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, a non-profit in Washington, D.C.” See also National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, Feeding Intolerance (Nov. 2007), available at http://www.nlchp.org/content/pubs/Feeding_Intolerance.07.pdf (last visited Mar. 16, 2009); Las Vegas City Code § 13.36.055. 118. Such charges should be distinguished from license suspensions that result from reckless driving or excessive speeding, which can be viewed as threatening public safety.
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Endnotes
The Terrible Toll of America’s Broken Misdemeanor Courts
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