CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx. — On March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court found in Gideon v. Wainwright that the constitution requires every state to provide legal counsel for those who can't afford an attorney.
But, a new study conducted by the Wren Collective and given exclusively to 6 Investigates in advance of its release found a problem in Nueces County.
That study found that rates paid to court-appointed attorneys here make it nearly impossible to do meaningful work for their clients.
Poor people in Nueces County are not receiving constitutionally adequate representation. Lawyers are funneling clients through a plea mill system, they are failing to adequately investigate cases, and they are not showing up at the jail. When Nueces County started the public defender, it took a step in the right direction. It should continue expanding the office and start an independent system with quality control immediately.
For those meeting eligibility requirements for a court-appointed attorney, defense attorneys said that these cases should be a top priority. But caseloads and rate of pay may suggest otherwise, according to this study.
"There is a big difference in representation among attorneys, and that is another problem inherent in the wheel," said 319th District Court Judge David Stith.
In 2022, court-appointed attorneys in Nueces County handled 9,153 cases, nearly half of which were handled by 21 attorneys.
And, one-third of the county's court-appointed attorneys stopped taking cases between 2019 and 2022.
"I think we've seen across the board, defense attorneys in town have seen their caseload go up," said Kyle Hoelscher, a defense attorney.
6 Investigates reviewed the same data as the Wren Collective to conduct an independent analysis and found one court-appointed attorney took 470 cases in five different counties in fiscal year 2022.
470 CASE BREAKDOWN
- 63 juvenile
- 295 adult felony
- 111 adult misdemeanor
- 1 felony appeal
- Cases in Aransas, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, and San Patricio counties.
6 Investigates also spoke with defense attorneys who each received over 200 court appointments in 2022.
"I'm a stickler and I do see people in court sometimes and I feel sorry for their clients," said Chris Gale, a defense attorney.
According to the study, part of the reason for the exodus of attorneys from the court-appointed wheel is the flat rate they are paid for cases.
They can earn $200 for a misdemeanor dismissal and a first-degree felony case is typically paid $900.
"I mean, the court appointment wheel is almost charity," Hoelscher said.
Based on workload studies and the amount of time that should be dedicated to cases, attorneys who devote the time required to adequately defend clients would make between $3.60 to $10.70 per hour under the county's flat fee system.
"I guess my bottom line (is) nobody should get paid that low for representing people," Stith said.
Each person 6 Investigates spoke with said that attorneys can request an hourly rate be paid on complex cases, but that overall pay is an issue.
"One of the things we see in Nueces County as well as several other counties in Texas is an extremely high caseload for attorneys. When you hit low wages for lawyers a lot of times what they do to try to make up for that is by taking a large volume of cases," said Geoff Burkhart, executive director of the Texas Fair Defense Project. "It doesn’t matter how good of a lawyer you are, there’s no way you can do the basic things like investigations, legal research, motions, meeting with your client. You can’t do the things that you need to do in every criminal case with a really high caseload."
Attorneys also said that they don't always receive timely payments for completed work.
6 Investigates learned one attorney had been waiting on $40,000 in fees.
"It is a sore subject," Hoelscher said. "There's not an attorney in town who's paid up-to-date. You kind of throw the voucher into the system and it's like I could get paid in two weeks I could get paid in two months."
With hundreds of cases, some said a rush to close cases at the detriment of justice is bound to happen.
"They are potentially compromising how much effort they put into those cases," Hoelscher said. "And maybe they are more quick to sign the plea bargain to close the case to get the payment voucher."
There is a sense that you need to get your plea and you need to get it quickly and that sometimes will lead an attorney to cut corners and perhaps go for the low-hanging fruit.
The study also found issues with not just attorney pay, but also the use of investigators, which attorneys said are essential to their cases.
Over six months in 2023, the courts paid for investigators in just seven cases.
Judges told 6 Investigates that they don't ever recall denying the request for an investigator, but attorneys said enough money isn't allocated when it is requested, calling this practice a "quiet denial."
"Judge will tell you 'Okay, well I'm going to give you $350, I'll give you $750 for an investigator' and that's nothing," Hoelscher said. "That's the quiet denial."
Attorneys said these issues contribute to a lack of investigators available for court-appointed work.
"I've had investigators tell me I'll work for you, but I'm not going to do any court-appointed cases," Perkins said.
The study, released Monday, details other issues, and some bright spots, with the defense of indigent defendants in Nueces County.
Over the next several months, KRIS 6 News will examine the criminal justice system within the county. 6 Investigates will bring stories of wrongful convictions, staggering caseloads, and the impact on the system as a whole. But more importantly, steps can be taken to reverse the problem of Cheap Justice and we will share those solutions.
