"Pay to Play" Forum

[cansohei11]

How often do you guys think criminal defense attorneys are expected to "pay to play" in big cities? I've heard [and myself believe], anecdotally, that in mid and small markets its pretty frequent. Essentially, the most successful attorneys in smaller markets are those that can throw money around and curry favor with local judges, city/county officials, and the district attorney through "legal bribery" i.e. campaign contributions and bundling, in addition to good old fashioned back slapping. It can even make or break your career. Fact or fiction?

[kalvano]

What in the fuck are you talking about?

[cansohei11]

You make campaign contributions to judges, they like you more. Ok, so it's not pay to play like the mob, or Blago, or some crap, but still. It can happen in small towns, I just wondered if it happened in big cities.

[IE the scandal in Knoxville where a major campaign contribution bundler was getting tons of appointments from select judges, something like 90% of their court appointments. Dunno what happened with that in the end, but there was talk of sanctioning the judges etc]

[kalvano]

No, seriously, what are you talking about? Are you referring to appointed defense work?


Edit: I see you are. Anything is possible, but I know in Dallas they use an automated "wheel" for appointments. The judges don't really have anything to do with it.

[cansohei11]

Sorry about being dense there man, yeah court appointments

[kalvano]

Big cities have such huge criminal dockets, I doubt the judges have time to personally appoint "favored" lawyers. My 1L summer, the judge I worked for had roughly 190 pending cases, and that was considered a small jail chain.

[cansohei11]

Yeah, and in big cities I believe the court coordinator does most of the appointing actually. Well, answered my question!