Timing is everything

[mojosmom]

One of my co-workers quit to go into private practice, so the plan was to have a party for her after work today. Unfortunately, the organizer booked us at a place that was a block away from this. (Not that he could have known!) Party cancelled (or at least postponed), since nobody could get to the restaurant! A few of us went out for drinks anyway in a completely different direction.

Comments

[fancyhorse.livejournal.com]

Oh, my! Do you think there's a chance you could get together at some later date, maybe to salute her in her new venture?

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, we definitely plan to reschedule!

[appleshoelace.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh - how scary. I guess something like that makes you not really resent having to cancel your party, because you also are grateful you weren't one of the people being held hostage.

I thought everyone worked privately in America. Or do some lawyers work for the council?

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

Oh, a lot of lawyers here work for the government in one form or other. I work in a public defender's office - we represent people charged with crimes who can't afford to retain their own lawyers. Where I live, each county has its own public defender office, except for some very small counties (population-wise) that contract with private attorneys to handle the assigned cases. In some states, the public defender office is part of the state government, rather than the county.

[appleshoelace.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. So do people who can't afford a defence lawyer get it paid by the government?

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

Yes. The court decides, after inquiring into their finances, whether they qualify for court-appointed counsel. In my office, the lawyers are salaried county employees, and we handle all the indigent cases in our county. That's unless there's a conflict of interest (for instance, suppose someone in our office were the victim!); in that case, someone from the private bar would be appointed to represent the person, and would be paid by the court at set rates.

[appleshoelace.livejournal.com]

That is interesting. When I did jury service, the defence lawyer was one who defended the defendants who couldn't afford it (er... I'm sure there's a better way of saying it than 'defended the defendants' but I don't know all the legal terminology!) but I didn't know they did that in America. I suppose because American people don't get welfare the way they do in the UK (at least from my understanding from reading Nickel and Dimed and its British counterpart Hard Work) so I assumed everyone had to pay for everything whether they could afford it or not.