Louisville public defenders continue fight for contract one year after vote to unionize

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- Attorneys at the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender Corporation said they feel overworked and attorneys are leaving at a rapid rate.

Attorneys voted to unionize in January 2022 in a 32-5 vote and have been in negotiations with management since July 2022.

"I certainly, after one year, was shocked," said former public defender Blake Gerstner.

Gerstner's first job after graduating law school was as a public defender in the general criminal division. But after one year and four months, he left for a job in the private sector.

"I was handling so many criminal cases that have great stakes for the most vulnerable individuals in our community," Gerstner said.

In his first year, Gerstner said he worked with around 800 cases. Two of them were murder cases.

The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals recommends attorneys' caseloads balance between 100 felony cases or 400 misdemeanor cases in one year.

His other reason for leaving was management's response to union efforts.

"The general response to our unionization and from management, given these dire concerns, had essentially been to gaslight, to depreciate the circumstances, and honestly just not listen and not take care of what's going on," said Gerstner.

Current public attorneys Cat Vining and Morgan King expressed similar concerns.

"I wanted to be a public defender ever since I was in law school," King said. "I wanted to do this work because I believe that everyone has a constitutional right to a defense and I just see myself running around court and frantically just trying to help as much as I can and I can help more if I was able to have a caseload that was manageable to do that work."

Vining said because there is no parental leave, people use sick time, vacation time, or unpaid time off to have a child. She also said that during a public defender's first year, they are not allowed to take vacation time or any paid time off, including bereavement.

"Things along those lines are just really unacceptable and they really, really affect our clients," Vining said. "The biggest thing we just feel is that we cannot adequately represent our clients with the current conditions."

Chief Public Defender, Leo G. Smith, told WDRB News in a statement: "We have been negotiating with IBEW since July. The parties have met on eight occasions, including last Wednesday. Both parties have made numerous proposals and counterproposals. The negotiations are ongoing.”

"They have only agreed to two of our proposals," Vining said.

There have been around 50 proposals made by the public defenders during bargaining meetings.

King and Vining said there is enough funding for around 75 attorneys at the office, but there are only 25 to 30, not including management staff.

The delays in getting a contract has concerned all three lawyers.

"Handling multiple murder cases within their first year and four months at that office, I believe the Louisville community has to ask themselves is that the standard that we want our people to be treated at," Gerstner said.

Vining explained the reason public defenders could unionize is because they receive funding from the state and city, meaning they are not state employees, and actually operate as a nonprofit, allowing them to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board.