“I wasn’t having it,” Haugen said.
Now, he’s part of a core group within the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender leading the charge to form a union. The group is launching its membership campaign Thursday as it pushes for better working conditions — including reducing caseloads for attorneys — in public defender’s offices across Colorado.
“I don’t want anybody else to have that sort of pressure where it’s a choice between your personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of the system,” Haugen said.
The union will be called the Colorado Defenders Union and will be affiliated with Communication Workers of America Local 7799.
Most lawyers, paralegals, investigators, social workers and administrative staff in the state’s 21 regional offices will be included, and 750 to 800 employees would be eligible to join, said Kiyomi Bolick, a co-chair of the organizing effort and a lead deputy public defender in Steamboat Springs. Office managers and supervising attorneys will not be included.
There is a catch, however.
Under Colorado law, employees in the state’s judicial system are not authorized to unionize and there’s no legal avenue to force government officials to recognize and bargain with them.
Those behind the effort in the public defender’s office hope their collective power will be strong enough to force their bosses and the state legislature to listen. Ultimately, they hope the General Assembly will pass a bill that authorizes a union for the judicial branch, much like it did in recent years when legislative aides and public workers in most counties were given bargaining rights.
Efforts to reach leaders in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender to discuss the unionization effort were unsuccessful.
Public defenders are appointed to represent people facing criminal charges. Everyone who is in custody is entitled to a public defender and if they are not in custody and still face criminal charges, public defenders are appointed based on income. Legal defense in criminal cases is a right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.
The two biggest issues for Colorado’s public defender employees are increasing pay for the staff that supports the lawyers and lightening the caseloads of those attorneys, Bolick said.
The lawyers want caps on caseloads because it’s hard to provide adequate legal counsel to everyone when they are juggling too many clients.
“We can’t say we have a conflict with a case because we are overburdened or we lack resources,” Bolick said. “A public defender is not allowed to say, ‘Judge, I have so many cases right now that I can’t possibly represent one more.'”
The American Bar Association’s recommended standard is 100 cases per attorney in a year. But most public defenders carry 100 or more cases at any given time, Bolick said.
And defending cases is becoming more complex as forensic science improves and more police departments use body cameras, which make for hours of work as attorneys and their staffs watch them and consider the evidence they present, Bolick said.
James Hardy, a lawyer in the office’s appellate division, said he dropped to part-time because his caseload was overwhelming.
“In our office, there’s just not reprieve because there is an endless number of appellate briefs to write,” Hardy said. “Folks don’t take their PTO. They don’t go on vacation. Because every hour off is an hour not spent on writing briefs.”
“You Can’t Retain Them”
Hardy, Bolick and Haugen all cited low pay for support staff as an ongoing problem. If someone talented comes to work in the office, it’s hard to retain them because pay is so much better elsewhere, they said.
The appellate office requires people who are top-notch writers and editors, who are capable of understanding complex laws, Hardy said. It’s hard to find qualified people willing to work for low wages.
“If you get one, you can’t retain them,” he said.
Christopher Cash, a social worker in the Golden office, spends his days connecting clients and their families to resources, conducting interviews with people to understand their backgrounds and what led them to get in trouble, and writing reports for attorneys.
The work is demanding but satisfying, he said. But social workers are spread thin and it’s hard to retain people.
“I’ve seen countless numbers come and go,” said Cash, who has worked in the public defender’s office for eight years. “It is a really difficult job to do sometimes and to be the most effective.”
The public defender’s office in Steamboat Springs has two administrative workers who answer phones, file paperwork and take on other assorted tasks to help with running the office. Both quit last year, Bolick said.
It took seven months to fill the front desk position because the hourly wage was so low that no one could afford to live in Steamboat Springs on that income alone.
“The gas station around the corner, the Kum & Go, was offering three more dollars an hour than we were,” she said.
The office eventually hired someone who lives in Craig — a nearly hour-long commute one way, Bolick said. The starting salary is $37,644 per year. There is no cost-of-living adjustment given to public defender’s office employees based on their location in Colorado, meaning a front office worker in Steamboat would earn the same as one in Denver and one in La Junta.
The department has openings for 20 paralegals, who would earn $48,300 per year, according to the public defender’s office website. A licensed social worker’s entry-level salary is advertised at $51,168 annually.
“We Want A Say in Our Conditions”
The American Bar Association in 2020 reported that unionizing within public defenders’ offices is a growing trend.
Since 2018, public defenders’ offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Connecticut have moved to gain collective bargaining rights. Public defenders in Massachusetts formed Mass Defenders United and are lobbying the state legislature for recognition, and the Maryland Defenders Union is pushing for more staff and better pay.
But convincing Colorado’s legislature to recognize a public defender’s union could be an uphill battle.
In the 2022 legislative session, Democrats introduced a bill that would have permitted unionizing among public employees in cities, counties, special districts, K-12 school districts and higher-education institutions. But they gutted the bill after Gov. Jared Polis said he only would support limited labor rights to county and higher education workers.
Bolick said the public defenders and support staff don’t see their bosses, including State Public Defender Megan Ring, as their enemies. But they want to be included in figuring out solutions to problems that are impacting their ability to represent clients, who are entitled to a sound legal defense.
“Obviously, unions are having a moment right now,” Bolick said. “The pandemic put so much pressure on systems that it showed where they were breaking. A lot of workers want a say. We want a say in our conditions.”
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