indeed.

I am the witness.

A court appointed attorney only makes $70.00 per hour.

Yes, $70.00 per hour is what the state pays appointed criminal defense attorneys. Some of the bigger counties have public defender offices where the defense attorneys are paid a salary and are full time employees. Most of those attorneys definitely make less than $70 per hour when you break down their salaries...similar to what an assistant DA makes.

Whitney Aboko-Cole

She works in the City Attorney’s Office?

whitney.aboko-cole@huntsvilleal.gov

(256) 427-7900

Is this an appeal from municipal court?

I have been told Jefferson County assistant public defenders make substantially less than assistant district attorneys. But, I have no personal knowledge of their pay scales.

I’ve been called several times for it. The last time I drug my feet actually forgot about it. And when I had been picked before my boss just sent them a letter saying I was at a critical point in the project and couldn’t leave it. This time the one of the offices lady’s was being a bitch and telling me she couldn’t and it was my civic duty mess as my boss was out of the country at the time. So I had to get with one of the project managers to convince her to do it. She didn’t send it until the actual day. Kind of had me worried so I called the courthouse and spoke with them and they told me it wasn’t a problem. They said they simply roll on to the alternates.

Well, the drunk driver plead guilty several weeks ago. Whitney Aboko-Cole and I had a chit chat in which she really didnt care it cost me personally a large sum of money. At least this case is closed and I can move on.

I've been called several times but never selected for jury duty. twice because when I told them what I do, I was struck. The other time I told the judge that he had mandated an inspection in another case and I was the defense expert in that case so if I was on a jury I couldn't do both. He let me go.

I went this am and I had to be excused because I have a drs apt Thursday morning in bham for my back. I really wanted to serve but just couldn’t. The judge was super nice about it.

only $70 an hour that must suck to only make $70 an hour. atleast they can afford a happy meal and a gallon of gas at the end of the day unlike the jurror that was forced to sit thru that crap. when was the last time pay for a jurror has been changed? seems like they are still stuck in the 1970s

$70 an hour might sound like a lot. But, that is only for the hours you bill on the case. The maximums allowed are ridiculously low. I think a class A felony (think murder) the max allowed to be paid is $4000. If you go to trial, you are seriously making a lot less than that. Also, you are not factoring in overhead. You know, rent, phone, secretary, office supplies, computers. Basically everything you have to have to keep an office open. It cost me more than $70 a hour to keep my office open.

Don't bring rational facts about overhead and costs into this discussion. Some folk' be makin' $70 an hour! Outrageous! They should be doing it pro bono!

And unless you are getting appointed a significant amount of cases each week, it’s only going to be a part of your income. There’s only so much work that can be done on each case (at least for misdemeanors) and there are caps on how much the state will pay for felony charges that go to trial. Also, if a judge thinks that you are billing too much, he can cut it down or decide to not appoint you on cases anymore. Capital cases do not have a statutory cap on the amount an attorney can bill the state. But then again, the judge still has to approve the fee before you get paid. Typically, it will be months before a lawyer gets paid once he is appointed to a case. Bills can’t be submitted until the case has been disposed of, generally. But most circuits in AL have salaried defense attorneys that handle indigent cases and individual attorneys (the $70 per hours ones) are only appointed on special cases with conflicts or capital murders.

Ive been around more than a few court appointed attorneys in my late teens early 20s I dont think I ever met one that even opens your file until about 15 minutes before you stand in front of a judge. In my experience they just want you to plead guilty so they can collect a check. I had one tell me to plead guilty to DUI when the state forensics lab report showed .06 said he "worked out a deal with the prosecutor" and would get me 6 month probation and a payment plan I told him where he could stick his plea deal. turns out in a small town the judge doesnt ike when you fire your attorney guess they play golf together, anyway he gave me 6 months I appealed and was out 3 hours later on bond. When it went to a higher court I told the judge the same thing I told the original judge "your honor Alabama state law defines DUI as a BAC of .08 or more I have the certified forensic analysis that shows my BAC was .06 I would like this case dismissed" he simply said "well thats what the law says case dismissed" and I went home. That attorney wasnt worth $70 a day much less an hour.

Nothing in your post is accurate. The state forensics lab doesn’t have anything to do with BAC. Second, the DUI law in the state of Alabama doesn’t say you can’t be convicted of DUI if your BAC is under .08. .08 is just a legal presumption that you are intoxicated. They don’t even have to have a BAC to convict you.
I’m not saying you didn’t have a bad lawyer. Maybe you should have hired a lawyer. But, that doesn’t negate the fact that court appointed Attorney’s aren’t getting rich on the work. You absolutely could not run an office if all you did was state of Alabama court appointed work.


But, you’ve made clear in your post that you think you are smarter than everyone else on this site. Hope you get a jury if regards next time you decide to drive drunk.

the paper work I received from the breathalyzer I took at the local PD said it was certified by state forensics I imagine someone has to make sure they are calibrated correct? isnt that why a roadside breathalyzer is usually inadmissible due to inacuracy? I may be wrong but back then over 12-15 years ago a .08 was a guaranteed ride to jail a .07 was at officer discretion but .06 or lower was not DUI

Please tell me what areas and roads you frequent so I can be sure to avoid you.

BAC is measured by the police department when you are taken to jail. 12-15 years ago it would have been with a Drager machine. The State Forensics Lab has nothing to do with administering or testing BAC. 12-15 years ago, that lawyer was making 45 an hour out of court and 65 in court and in a DUI would have been called at $1,500 if I am not mistaken.

The Dept. of Forensic Science does oversee the training and testing of the Draeger Instruments or the Intoxilyzer 5000, whatever the machine they use now is called. I was trained on both and can't remember which one is the latest, but that is all DFS has to do with BAC. Doekiller is essentially correct in that they have nothing to do with the individual BAC tests, and he is certainly correct about the law not requiring a BAC of .08 unless that is the one out of four possible subsections in the DUI law that the officer decided to charge under and only a blithering idiot would charge under the .08 subsection with a .06 BAC. Kind of like charging someone with Murder while the victim is still alive.

Oops, I committed one of their sins. I called the "instrument" a machine. That is a no no to them because machine can break down, but instruments don't so they teach to never refer to it as a machine.