§ 10.100.010. Standard One—Compensation.

Public defense attorneys and staff should be compensated at a rate commensurate with their training and experience. To attract and retain qualified personnel, compensation and benefit levels should be comparable to those of attorneys and staff in prosecutorial offices in the area. For assigned counsel reasonable compensation should be provided. Compensation should reflect the time and labor required to be spent by the attorney and the degree of professional experience demanded by the case. Assigned counsel should be compensated for out-of-pocket expenses.

Contracts should provide for extraordinary compensation over and above the normal contract terms for cases which require an extraordinary amount of time and preparation, including, but not limited to, death penalty cases. Services which require extraordinary fees shall be defined in the contract. Attorneys who have a conflict of interest shall not have to compensate the new, substituted attorney out of their own funds.

Flat fees, caps on compensation, and lump-sum contracts for trial attorneys are improper in death penalty cases. Private practice attorneys appointed in death penalty cases should be fully compensated for actual time and service performed at a reasonably hourly rate with no distinction between rates for services performed in court and out of court. Periodic billing and payment should be available. The hourly rate established for lead counsel in a particular case should be based on the circumstances of the case and the attorney being appointed, including the following factors: the anticipated time and labor required in the case, the complexity of the case, the skill and experience required to provide adequate legal representation, the attorney's overheard expenses, and the exclusion of other work by the attorney during the case. Under no circumstances should the hourly rate for lead counsel, whether private or public defender, appointed in a death penalty case be less than one hundred twenty-five dollars per hour (in 2006 dollars).

(Ord. No. 14114, Exh. A, 9-8-2008; Ord. No. 15730 , § 1(Att. A), 1-29-2019)