Right to Counsel is in the Bill of Rights. Despite the fact most Americans think it is, healthcare is not.
Given the attitude most Americans take towards their "right" to healthcare, let's talk to the public defenders the way the government's entitlement programs have been talking to physicians.
These public defenders are saying that their workload is too high. They say they cannot ethically take on any more cases and expect to do a good job with the individuals they are currently representing. They are SUING (what else do lawyers do) to give themselves a shut-off valve. Well, if the CMS attitude permeated this argument, I imagine it would go something like this:
Right to Counsel is guaranteed American citizens in the Bill of Rights. When you chose law school, you should have understood your duty to society. The pay should not matter to you, as this is a needed service that you should be gracious to provide. Yes, budget cuts have meant you can't make as much money as you'd like, but there are plenty of public defenders who are turning the conveyor belt up a little faster and still making everything work.
Perhaps we should introduce a productivity model for you? We can assign a relative value to the cases that you provide. So that way if you are truly tackling harder cases that demand more of your time, you will get paid more for those services. Fear not! We will not arbitrarily and year-after-year whittle that payment down to, in-effect, get you to see a few extra clients a month for "free".
And if you think about doing a shitty job for any of these citizens? We will enact a quality initiative, where you must provide, in writing, and on a form designed by semi-retired attorneys, evidence that you are doing everything you should be doing for this client. Then you can reclaim your pay cut as a "bonus".
And don't even think about leaving your profession for greener pastures, because there are SCORES of your colleagues who will be more than willing to manage a small team of legal aides (who we will endow with broader litigation privileges) who can handle the easier cases at a fraction of the cost to us.
And if that doesn't work? Maybe we'll just start letting lawyers from other countries take a "brush-up" certification course on American Law. Their work ethic and selflessness regarding compensation would be quite an asset.
So we recommend that you roll your sleeves up and see more clients, or we will be forced to further restrict your compensation and, sadly, be forced to "guide" the way you practice medicine -- er, LAW.
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