It is Monday and court service day in district court. The public defender's office was in town to take over the felony docket from the contract attorneys. We received the view of the effort to take over the entire state from the contract attorneys. It is an ambitious effort. An effort that will not work with the staff they have. I expect with the ending of the recession they will make a push to create statewide offices to continue their efforts to take over the criminal defense of the entire state.

I had two defendants go to prison today and one to the violator's program which is in effect prison since it is located in prison and lasts four to six months. Judge Goodhue presided. It was an especially busy day since they have taken one of the two court service days from us and put the civil docket on Monday afternoons rather than Tuesday. Wednesday I have a custody trial scheduled and we will "probably" travel to Knoxville to try the case. Can't say what will happen to the witness that I need which I subpoenaed to Jasper County since we did not know where we were going when I sent the subpoena to the sheriff. This is a real mess and will get worse before it shakes out.

The consensus of opinion seems to be that the judicial department is causing as much trouble for the general public as possible so the public will contact their legislators and insist they do something about it. Can't say what the legislator will do about anything this year but cut budgets. We shall see.

We had a three-day trial scheduled starting today in Newton. Gave my client one more chance to take a deal and after two hours we had a guilty plea and sentencing accomplished to amended charges. Would give more details but probably shouldn't. Goodhue was the judge. Good man Goodhue. In Tom Mott's court I had scheduled a motion to withdraw as attorney of record. After being told by my client that I needed to return to law school, I had nothing else to say to him. Judge Mott granted my motion immediately and I returned to other matters. Occasions arise when attorney and client get crosswise and the best policy is to remove yourself from harms way. Nothing good comes from a disgruntled client. Cut your losses and run.

Now that I have two days to work in the office, may accomplish some things that have been sitting on the desk for a piece. Always nice to have a day or to in the office. A couple of abstracts to read, a motion to suppress to finish, a PCR to file, a sentencing to prepare for. By noon I'll be ready to drive to Colfax for lunch.