Suit claims public defender is unqualified

POSTED JULY 31, 2017, 7:00 AM  ABA JOURNAL

A California lawyer has filed an amended lawsuit alleging the public
defender in Humboldt County doesn't meet the state qualifications to
hold office.

The suit contends Public Defender David Marcus doesn't meet the
statutory requirement that public defenders must have been "a
practicing attorney in all the courts of the state for at least the
year preceding the date of his election or appointment." The North
Coast Journal covered the lawsuit and the controversy.

Marcus was the chief public defender in another California county
from 2005 to 2011, but he was working primarily as an insurance
claims adjuster in Florida when he was hired in February, the article
reports. Humboldt County claims Marcus met the qualifications
requirement because he maintained an active law license in California
and was doing some contract legal work for a California law firm.

If the statute were interpreted differently, it would mean public
defenders couldn't hold office unless they "had made a physical
appearance in literally all California courts, including every
superior court in all 58 counties," Humboldt County argued.

Griego's suit says Marcus' past year's legal work isn't sufficient
under the law, and cites July 3 deposition testimony by Marcus to
raise questions about the extent of the legal work he did.

In a July 3 deposition, Marcus said he had worked on four cases for
the law firm in the year before his hiring by the county, but he
received no pay. Marcus said most of the work consisted of a meeting
with a law firm principal, also a friend, during a Florida visit in
which he reviewed legal briefs for the three cases. Marcus also said
he may have participated in a few conference calls with clients in the cases.

Marcus said he expected to get paid when the cases were over.

Marcus told the ABA Journal that the lawsuit turns on a one-sentence
statute, and he thinks the county's position is defensible.

His work for the law firm was "definitely" sufficient, he said,
because there is no set amount of legal work that has to be done to
comply with the law. "Essentially we're going to get down to that
one-sentence statute and see how that ultimately gets interpreted," he said.

Third paragraph corrected at 11:30 a.m. to state that Marcus was
working as an insurance adjuster when he was hired in February.

Source link:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/suit_claims_public_defender_is_unqualified/