Conscripted attorneys sue county commissioners for fees
Jail, fines threatened for nonpayment
A group of conscripted indigent defense attorneys has sued Grant County Commissioners Tim Snead, Leroy Allison and Deborah Moore, threatening fines and jail time for alleged nonpayment of attorney's fees.
A writ of mandate, which was filed by 11 attorneys from Grant and Chelan counties Tuesday, commands the three commissioners to direct the county to pay the attorneys for their work on 33 cases at the rate decided by Grant County Superior Court Judges Evan Sperline, John Antosz and Kenneth Jorgensen earlier this spring.
The attorneys listed as plaintiffs include four from Grant County: Carl Warring, William Plonske, Mark Stansfield and Steven Talbot. Seven of the lawyers are from Chelan County: Clarke W. Tibbits, Earl W. Hensley, Julie Anderson, Ron Hammett, David S. Delong, Tracy Brandt and Travis Brandt.
In an unusual move, the attorneys sued the commissioners as individuals and left the county out of the lawsuit.
Warring, the Moses Lake attorney who has spearheaded the effort among the 11 attorneys, said that's because Snead, Allison and Moore were the individuals who ignored the judges' order to pay the conscripted attorneys at a rate of 82.5 percent of their normal hourly fee.
Warring, who adds that he's owed about $32,000 for his work on 13 cases, said the goal of the lawsuit is to compel the commissioners to authorize the payments.
"I hope it persuades them to pay the people they owe the money to," Warring said.
However, the approved payments to the conscripted attorneys are not exactly set in stone, either. The commissioners' attorney, Jerry Moberg, has appealed the judges' orders to pay the attorneys at the 82.5 percent
rate. Moberg requested the state Court of Appeals remand that decision back to a judge in another county.
Allison said four conscripted attorneys have settled their combined 23 cases under the commissioners' fee structure. Commissioners are negotiating with two other attorneys to settle 12 to 14 more cases, Allison said.
If Snead, Allison and Moore do not comply with the order to pay the attorneys, they must appear before Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline on Sept. 1 at 9 a.m. to show cause as to why, according to the writ of mandate.
If the four fail to show adequate cause for not directing the payments, they are subject to a fine of $1,000 per day and/or confinement in Grant County Jail, according to the document.
The dispute began when the commissioners and judges made separate decisions about how much conscripted attorneys should be paid. In the wake of the suspension and subsequent disbarment of public defender Tom Earl, the judges called for volunteers, then conscriptions, of attorneys from Chelan and Grant counties to represent indigent defendants.
The judges began assigning attorneys to cases immediately after Earl's suspension took effect, with the promise of a "reasonable compensation" to be determined later, according to the lawsuit. That compensation plan called for the attorneys to be paid 82.5 percent of their normal hourly rate, which averaged roughly $150 per hour among all the attorneys called.
The board of commissioners, citing their constitutional authority to approve all county expenditures, approved $80,000 to be doled out to conscripted and volunteer indigent-defense attorneys at a rate of $550 per case.
With the county facing potential budget cuts across the board, commissioners stated Grant County could not afford to pay the conscripted attorneys at the rate ordered by the judges. One early estimate predicted a shortfall of more than $1 million for 2004 when the total budget is just under $22 million.
When the county or its elected officials are sued, the prosecutor's office normally represents the defendant. However, because this lawsuit names the commissioners as individuals, Prosecutor John Knodell said he does not
whether his office will be involved, but he will help if called upon. Snead, who was served the lawsuit while campaigning for his re-election at the Democrat booth at the Grant County Fairgrounds Wednesday morning, said the county has a resolution stating that it will defend any elected officials who are sued while performing in the course of their duty.
Snead added that he thinks the board of commissioners acted properly in approving the $80,000 to pay conscripted-attorney fees.
"We have that budgetary discretion," he said. Allison said he wants to hear what another court has to say about the $80,000 appropriation.
"I really do think that we need to have an impartial entity look at this, and that's an appellate court," he said.
Moore is in New Mexico for a business conference and could not be reached for comment.
Knodell, who worked with Moberg in arguing the commissioners' case, said it's unconstitutional for the judges to order the commissioners to pay money they haven't appropriated.
"I'm very disappointed the judges have not respected the constitutional authority of the commissioners," Knodell said.