Court Opinion

ID: 9689963
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:50:27.800493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:52.916724
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I agree with the majority that a failure to adhere to the rule requiring advance approval of court-appointed counsel fees which exceed the published guidelines would deprive the district court of a valuable tool in controlling those costs. The present result is untenable, however, because the amount of the fee allowed to attorney Postma is less than that which is reflected by the attorney’s hours at trial.
The guidelines are effective primarily at controlling excessive pretrial preparation time. They have slight, if any, remedial effect in curbing an attorney’s trial hours. A trial ordinarily takes as long as it takes. If a trial is being needlessly prolonged, the district court has other means at its disposal to deal with that problem.
I believe attorney Postma, at a minimum, is entitled to be compensated in full for his trial time. To deny him that much is punitive. I would also allow him the full guideline fee, in addition to compensation for hours spent at trial, because it is obvious that pretrial preparation exhausted the guideline compensation.