BOISE, Idaho — Defense attorneys are sounding the alarm about a recent change in how Idaho's public defenders are paid.
"My worst fears about what would happen here in Idaho are coming to," now-federal defender Neil Price said.
Price left his job as a long-time public defender in Ada County this summer to work as a federal defender in Pocatello. He said he reluctantly made the change because the shift in how public defense works led to his pay being cut by 10%.
"What you used to have was a pay based on merit, and that was commensurate with their counterparts of the Prosecutor's Office. That no longer exists now," he said.
Under the Idaho State Public Defender Office, which was signed into law in 2023, the State manages all public defenders instead of individual counties in hopes of streamlining the system as of October.
The consolidation is the result of a nearly decade-old lawsuit that claims Idaho's public defense system is flawed, State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen said. He leads the Office.
"What we discovered is there are certain pockets in the state that didn't have what we needed for public defense, for our client," Fredericksen said. "And so, the idea was to level everything out and have a unified system throughout."
Fredericksen said contract attorneys, who fill in when public defenders are not available, make $100 most of the time now.
In general, he said pay has increased across the board throughout the State. Contract attorneys in Ada County previously made around $65/hour.
"The idea of leveling pay was to make sure that we have representation across the state, not just in certain counties," Fredericksen said.
Now-private defense attorney Terry Ratliff said the concept is "very good" but funded by the legislature poorly. He recently left his job as a contract public defender in Elmore County because the change meant we went from earning $200/hour to $100/hour.
The legislature allocated $49 million for the agency for Fiscal Year 2025. Ratliff testified in front of lawmakers that it was not enough.
"They said it was going to be a base rate," he said. "We thought they were to negotiate with us. They didn't. It's a $100/hour, take it or leave it."
Because he did not sign the contract, Ratliff said he withdrew from 114 cases, including three homicides.
"I have a duty to my clients, that's correct," he said, "but I also have a duty to the seven employees I have, and their families, and I can't work and keep this office running and feed those families with $100 an hour."
As of Oct. 9, a spokesperson said SPD has 286 employees and 23 open positions.
While there are openings, Fredericksen said contract attorneys walking away without finishing cases is their biggest concern. Altogether, they have withdrawn from 1,000 cases.
"I had a correspondence with one attorney who bragged about withdrawing from all the cases," he said. "To be very clear, these aren't cases. These are people. These are individuals that have families, have friends."
Fredericksen said the Office hopes to go back to the merit-based pay system. It depends on if the legislature allocates more money in the next session.
He plans on asking for $68 million for FY 2026.
In addition to pay, Price said the Office is unorganized — with lawyers not meeting their clients until the day of a hearing and not having adequate access to discovery.
That is a consequence of contract attorneys pulling out, Fredericksen said.
"When a contractor gets out of a case, the case file is the clients," he said. "We've had a lot of difficulty getting those from the contractors, so we just haven't had access to those."
He went on to tell KTVB," The people that are staying on for public defense; those are the true believers. Those are the people that believe in the Constitution, believe in their clients, believe in their people. They realize that I'm here to fight for more money for them and to address the needs that they have."