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Posted on 07/15/2026 7:02:55 AM PDT by Salman
Hundreds of staff members and attorneys at Brooklyn Defender Services may walk off the job on Thursday after their union authorized a potential strike.
The public defenders represent thousands of low-income Brooklyn and Queens defendants in court who cannot afford their own attorneys.
"The idea of my clients standing in court without me is not something I ever want them to have," Julia Coppelman, a senior staff attorney in criminal defense at Brooklyn Defender Services and strike captain, told NY1.
Attorneys, represented by the United Auto Workers Local 2325, authorized a strike to take place at 8 a.m. on Thursday if a deal on a new contract cannot be reached with the nonprofit legal provider.
"Making this work sustainable is so important," said Coppelman, who's handling 100 cases. "So many of us, I think all of us, come into this job passionate about putting our clients first."
Brian Holbrook, a Brooklyn defender in the family court practice who is also a union official, said some of the sticking points were compensation, increasing sick days from seven days a year, and a detailed remote work policy.
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Long strike, long backlog of cases after?
Or will there be "scab" public defenders? src=https://i.imgur.com/v59rpAS.gif>
White collar employees, especially white collar government employees, should never be allowed to be in a union.
Those are the lawyers who couldn’t work anywhere else.
“The idea of my clients standing in court without me is not something I ever want them to have,”
The ‘Rats have found their next SCOTUS pick!
> Attorneys, represented by the United Auto Workers Local 2325 <
I would not have predicted that. Maybe the attorneys can get jobs as auto mechanics until the strike is over.
The big question: Will a UAW union card substitute for apprentice training?
🤔
Were they doing anything anyway? Perhaps morondummy will just terminate them.
Unionized public defenders??!? What the fresh hell is up with that??? Society gone mad!
Why do they need public defenders didn’t they stop arresting criminals ?
I’m probably going contrary to the opinion at FR in saying this, but I do think that public defenders provide a valuable service in our justice system. Most of them are low paid and are not the attorneys making the crazy arguments that get criminals off the hook for outrageous crimes on a technicality. They are overworked and frankly, not the most brilliant attorneys. They work their caseloads like a job and do the best they can for their defendants. They represent a lot of guilty clients but even the guilty should get a fair sentence. And they also represent some innocent people who simply happen to be poor. Please don’t ascribe all the evils of the criminal defense industry to public defenders. They are not the ones who are getting horrible criminals off the hook. Those are the high paid defense lawyers who have millions of dollars to play with. I’m going to risk excommunication from FR by saying that the public defenders are underpaid compared to other lawyers and should have some way of getting better pay. Should that be a union and a strike? I don’t know. But this doesn’t bother me too much.
It's long overdue to end.
Quite reasonable, I stand behind them. Workers, even public defenders, have laundry to do, sock drawers to organize, liquor store and grocery shopping, visits to the grandkids, etc.
CHECK OUT THE COST TO UTAH TAXPAYERS COVERING THE COST OF ROBINSON’S LEGAL COUNSEL.
Unionized shysters.
Yeah, that $10M plus was posted yesterday.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4387928/posts
Very well put and you’re not alone. Public defenders put meaning into the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. It’s strange as hell that these are represented by the UAW, but they perform a very thankless task and I’m likewise not going to knock them.
Public Taxpayer funded defense attorneys detract from the 6th Amendment right to counsel.
Lawyers can't compete with "free" services and thus don't enter the lower end of the defense services market.
Forcing the taxpayers to pay for lawyers of other people is NOT part of the 6th Amendment, and is tax slavery under the 13th Amendment.
Whenever the Far Left gets in power, the Leftist Public Employees demand more.
Every time.
Every place.
And the Far Left in power gives it to them, every time.
Cementing their power base.
It’s plain old Money Laundering.
With your tax dollars.
For existing clients, the solution should be to hold an attorney who has entered an appearance and doesn’t show up for a hearing in contempt of court, and for the judge to hit him or her with a fine for contempt. And to send a bailiff after the lawyer to bring him or her to court.
Abandonment of a client without leave of court to withdraw should also result in disciplinary action.
As for new defendants, start appointing Big Law partners to defend them at the standard rates for the public defenders. Pay those $3000 an hour lawyers a few hundred dollars to see the case through the system.
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