Ruslan Ivanov loved being a public defender. What he didn?t love was the way his work constantly followed him ? at home, with friends and family, even on vacation.
On one trip to Colorado, he stood in front of a breathtaking mountain view. And started thinking about a case.
?I thought about, ?I need to do something. Is there something that I forgot? Is there something that I?m missing??? he said. ?I still thought about the individuals that I encountered and their life situations ? too much of that is maybe detrimental in one?s job as an attorney, but I still thought about it.?
From 2015 to 2018, Ivanov was an attorney for the Kansas State Board of Indigents? Defense Services, the state agency that provides criminal defense to people who can?t afford their own lawyers. He worked in Wichita and Topeka, mostly handling drug cases, assaults, thefts and weapons possession.
The job was an invaluable legal education, Ivanov said, but not one he could keep doing forever. He typically juggled between 60 and 90 cases at once and sometimes worked seven days a week. Often, he had to track down and interview witnesses himself, a task typically performed by an investigator ? but his office only had one investigator between two dozen attorneys.
?The caseload is large,? he said. ?If you?re preparing for particular hearings, you may be thinking about several of them, all at the same time.?
Ivanov ended up quitting in early 2018, along with 22 of his colleagues who left the agency that fiscal year.
That?s a resignation rate of 24 percent, the highest the Board of Indigents? Defense Services has seen since its creation in 1982, said the agency?s executive director, Pat Scalia. She declined multiple requests for an interview, but she told state lawmakers in February that several public defender offices had to stop taking new cases because they were so overwhelmed. To hire and retain staff, she argued, the agency desperately needs more money.
?The agency is in crisis,? she said. ?I?m asking that the salaries of public defenders be adjusted to match the pay scale that is now in place by our sister state of Missouri.?
Low salaries
Scalia asked lawmakers for an additional $498,547 in next year?s budget to fund public defender salaries, saying the money would ?get our current staff close? to Missouri salaries.
Currently, Kansas public defenders with 10 or fewer years of experience make a maximum of $59,850 a year. When they reach 20 years of experience, they make $68,665. Chief defenders make $78,750.
Salaries for defenders in Missouri start at $46,992 but increase to more than $70,000 after a few years of experience.
Private attorneys, meanwhile, can charge hundreds of dollars an hour.
Blair Loving, a former public defender now in private practice, said he didn?t feel underpaid while working at the Western Regional Public Defender Office in Garden City. But his new job allows him more control over how much money he makes and when. When he was a public defender at the state?s office in Garden City, he didn?t make any overtime, no matter how long he worked.
