Attorney General Lawrence Wasden holds a stack of lawsuits filed against the state of Idaho
Lawrence Wasden does not want to take a pay cut. It is kind of like the theory of supply and demand, but in this case Idaho is getting sued a lot, so the AG’s office needs the money to fight the litigation. If we give him a pay cut, then we will have to contract out the lawsuits to private attorneys which costs more.
Really, unless you are a criminal - retaining an attorney is spendy. Evidently, folks like to sue during recessions because they have nothing to lose. I don’t quite understand that, but I will go with it. Brad Iverson-Long with Idaho Reporter tells us:
The trouble with cutting the attorney general’s budget, Wasden said, is that he can’t ignore lawsuits filed against the state of Idaho, and that more legal cases will be handled by private lawyers. Those private lawyers charge much more than state lawyers—Wasden said a deputy attorney general’s fees start at $57 an hour, but outside lawyers ask for a minimum of $125 an hour.
The other option is to ignore state lawsuits. You never know, this might actually cost us less to settle – rather than keeping a contracted private attorney working as long as he can, keeping the case alive - among other costs to the public like jury trials.
But, Wasden does not want the ox to go ungored but he feels we have no choice.
No one’s ox should go ungored … We simply don’t have the choice of ignoring the lawsuits.”
Wasden is fighting lots of battles with criminal appeals – who have nothing to lose – tobacco litigation – and then of course we need to spend that money on those wolf lawsuits. Wasden is not asking for an increase, he is pretty much begging everyone not to decrease his budget since he says he has pretty already taken it in the shorts with the furloughs and hold backs.
But, really – take a look at that stack of lawsuits, come on – do you think I am buying that stack as threatening? I don’t think so. The AG would have made his point more effectively if he had carted in BOXES of lawsuits.
More on this topic at Idaho Reporter without bias and sarcasm here.
credit for photo – Idaho Reporter – which was cut and altered by me
Recent Comments