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cated upon workload for the first six months of this calender year indicate an average of sixty misdemeanor and juvenile cases per month, or thirty cases per attorney. 3. St. Lucie County: Willye L. Thomas, my Assistant Public Defender currently handling juvenile cases will be leaving by the end of the month by virtue of her certification eligibility as an intern having expired prior to her obtaining membership in the Florida Bar. This position cannot be filled. Sammy Berry, Jr. and Abraham J. Gale, my assistants presently handling the misdemeanor' caseload in St. Lucie County will be placed on indefinite leave without pay as of January 1st. It is estimated that we will have approximately seventy misdemeanor cases per month and approximately ten juvenile cases per month during the first six months of 1983. I anticipate that the four felony attorneys assigned to St. Lucie County will be able to absorb the additional caseload in juvenile court but will be unable to handle misdemeanor assignments in county court. 4. Indian River County: Bruce J. Smith, my assistant currently handling all misdemeanor and juvenile cases in Indian River County, will be placed on indefinite leave without pay as of January 1st. The estimated ten juvenile cases per month will be handled by my two felony assistants assigned to Indian River County. However, we will not be able to handle the estimated eighty misdemeanor cases per month in Indian River County. In accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of Florida in Escambia County vs. Behr, FLA', 384 So. 2nd 147, I am requesting, by copy of this letter, all county judges in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River Counties to reassign all pending misdemeanor cases and all cases arising after January 1, 1983 to special assistant public defenders in accordance with Section 27.53(2) Florida Statutes. it is estimated that the average misdemeanor case requires between five and ten hours of attorney time outside of court. This would indicate that one attorney could handle approximately thirty cases per month in a time frame of approximately 160 hours. At the rate of $35 per hour set by the court, this would amount to $5,600 per month per at- torney or a total of $28,000 per month for the five attorneys antici- pated to be needed to handle this workload. The five Assistant Public Defenders being placed on indefinite leave without pay.have indicated a willingness to contract with the respective counties to accept these misdemeanor cases at a contractual rate of $1,750 per attorney, per month, or a total of $8,750 per month for all five attorneys. Assuming that the current situation continues until the end of our fiscal year on June 30th, this would amount to a total of $52,500 needed to be expended by the three counties currently involved. It would amount to $10,500 for Indian River County, and $21,000 each for Martin and St. Lucie Counties. Since we still have over $68,000 appropriated for re- imbursement to the counties for payment of compensation to private at- torneys in conflict cases, the overall impact should be virtually nil. Under such a contractual arrangement, the attorneys would be receiving a fee.comm`enserate'with their present compensation in- cluding matching funds for health insurance and social security. We will also be able to continue providing support services such as office space and secretarial services without any additional costs. I sincerely hope that the Boards of County Commissioners involved as well as the various judgesaffected agree to cooperate so that a reasonable solution can -be achieved with minimal impact on the tax- payers. f' Respectfull yours, - Elto� H. Schwarz Public Defender 85- ,., i