State Attorneys and PDs seek legislative assistance to stem turnover issues
Turnover in Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office increased from 17% to 28% last year; of the 34 attorneys hired in 2021, only 17 remain today
Bill Gladson
Florida prosecutors and public defenders are grateful for an unprecedented pay raise lawmakers approved last session, but more is needed to address high turnover and lack of recruitment.
That’s the message the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Florida Public Defender Association gave the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday.
“We’ve had outreach in every single law school in the state of Florida, we’re doing everything we can,” said Fifth Circuit State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson. “The problem is, it’s difficult to be competitive with the private market.”
FPDA President and Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos J. Martinez thanked the committee profusely for a $10,000, across-the-board pay increase the Legislature gave front-line prosecutors and public defenders last session.
But more is needed, he said.
“It helped slow down the bleeding,” Martinez said. “Our system has been bleeding lawyers, prosecutors and public defenders, for three years.”
Rising salaries in the private sector and skyrocketing housing costs are making it harder for Florida’s 20 public defenders to fill some 250 vacancies, Martinez said.
Recruiting is especially hard in South Florida, where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,600, he said.
“That’s why we’re asking for another $15,000 this year,” Martinez said.
Gladson said his office has 15 vacancies it needs to fill.
Beginning lawyers are less eager to become trial lawyers, especially when they can earn $80,000 in a private firm that lets them work from home, Gladson said.
“There’s a lot of shy lawyers out there,” he said. “It’s making it hard for us.”
Turnover in Miami-Dade increased from 17% to 28% last year, Martinez said. Of the 34 attorneys he hired in 2021, only 17 remain today, he said.
“Six months into this fiscal year, I have already lost 30 lawyers,” he said. “God forbid if I lose another 30 lawyers.”
According to statistics Martinez supplied to the committee, attorneys make up slightly more than half, 53.8%, of the 3,000 full-time-equivalent positions managed by Florida’s 20 public defenders.
His figures show that public defenders were assigned 521,3777 new cases in FY 2021-2022.
The Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office has about 15,000 open felony cases, Martinez said.
“The caseloads go up, which then not only delays the cases, but the lawyers who stick around have higher and higher caseloads, and you begin to feel incompetent,” he said. “A crisis is developing.”
