What public defenders actually do.

Idaho public defenders like most public defenders walk with their clients who have already decided to plead guilty or go to trial. The number of clients is extreme,  somewhere between 600 and 800 clients in a given month. The attorneys aren't alone in this process and their office assistants and some others worked amazingly hard as well. The problem in Idaho is the amazingly low wages for public defenders. While working under John Hansen in Twin Falls, women's pay was cut to support a male attorney. Did he not know that was illegal?  Of course he did. Did he care of course not. Did we think about going to HR to complain? Hell no. Here's why, the experience was the training. The constant client meetings and the fast setting of trials was likely no different from any other public defender offices in the country. The problem then was Idaho alone. Public servants should never have to work two jobs and the state bar of Idaho should be firmly warned by the American Bar Association or the Idaho Supreme Court or by private attorneys who know  corruption too well.  

If bar counsel wants independence, it should be granted only if the attorney has 100 hours or more of legal ethics training and is related to a regular job in stead of a full time ethics position. 

I was charged with 4 complaints. Two of them weren't even my clients and hadn't paid a dime for my time and skill. I had no duty to them or to a judge. They did receive warning letters, though now part of the historical record. My assistant was also a client of a messy divorced. To date, I haven't been paid. I'm still in touch with the woman and still want to go home.