Criminal procedure can be
incredibly harsh and unforgiving for defendants and their lawyers. If a defense lawyer makes the smallest
misstep, or fails to do or say just the right thing at just the right time, he
can inadvertently “waive” his client’s rights and protections, often with
disastrous outcomes. But, when it comes
to judges, the law is much more forgiving. In State v. Robinson the
judge sentenced the defendant to a multi-year term of confinement. The defendant was hauled out of the courtroom
and straight to jail to begin serving her time.
But the judge slept on it, had second thoughts, and decided that he
wanted a “do over.” So the next day he
had the deputies haul the defendant out of jail and back into court, where he
re-sentenced her and gave her an additional nine months.
A couple of years ago, some
members of the Wisconsin Bar were putting up a stink about the low hourly wage paid
to appointed attorneys who represent indigent citizens accused of crimes. I wrote about it on the MU Faculty Blog, and made the prediction
that the state government would not raise this pay rate, which has been unchanged
for decades. And not only was that
prediction correct—I’m not taking credit for reading the future; the prediction
was easy and obvious—but since that time, lawyer wages have fallen even
further. Many employers, including the
government, are now advertising lawyer jobs where the salary is—you guessed it—zero.
When reading my $500 per year Wisconsin
Lawyer Magazine—which appears to be free
to everyone who does not pay bar
dues—I saw an article about an out-of-state lawyer discipline case. The lawyer was publicly censured, fined, and
got stuck with “the cost of the proceeding” for some advertising claims that
were confusing, probably misleading, and, in some cases, false. Here’s an example: “the lawyer stated that
attorneys in the firm focused their practice in one area of law, but the firm’s
web page listed 27 distinct practice areas.”
Obviously, the word “focused” could have different meanings to different
people. For example, some attorneys in
the firm may spend half of their time in a single area, thus qualifying as a
“focus,” while still practicing in multiple other areas of law for the other
half of their work. Alternatively, maybe
some of the firm’s lawyers do “focus” exclusively on one area, while other
members don’t focus and instead practice multiple areas of law. So why was the lawyer disciplined?
