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Betsy Wells Edwards

As a public relations professional, Betsy Wells Edwards has to believe that the public—and legislators—will respond to the right message.

She has proof in her background. She was touting the benefits of safety belts and child restraints for the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles when the utility of such devices was not nearly as engrained as it is now.

For the past five years, as director of what is now the Virginia Fair Trial Project, her message has been that the state’s method of paying attorneys to represent indigent defendants is “really, really onerous and unfair.”

Progress has been slow but took a giant step forward during the 2007 session of the legislature with a plan to waive in some instances the cap state law places on fees for court-appointed attorneys.

Edwards and others involved in the effort hope that the plan, and the $8.2 million the legislature appropriated to finance it, will lead to waiving the caps altogether.

Getting to this point required educating the media, lawyer organizations and the public about the system and its shortcomings, she said. “We talk among ourselves, and we think everybody knows what we know, and that’s not the case.”

The Fair Trial Project is closely affiliated with the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, but bringing other groups, especially the Virginia Bar Association, to the fray was essential, Edwards said.

The persistence of a series of VBA presidents, most recently William R. Van Buren III, together with newspaper articles and a major and very critical report by the Spangenberg Group in 2004 helped generate “a lot of buzz,” Edwards said. “It made it hard for the General Assembly members to avoid it.”

But the legislators “needed something very tangible,” and no one had a good idea of how much time court-appointed attorneys were spending on their cases and what it might cost if they were paid for all or even most of their time. Defense attorneys typically represent private clients for a flat fee and reach the cap so quickly at the $90 per hour the state pays that they seldom bother keeping accurate time records.

Proponents also took the advice of key legislators to “get in the budget”: work with the staffs of governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine so that the concept was something that legislators would have to take out of the budget rather than add to it.

Through it all, Edwards said, she reminded herself that court-appointed fees are only of many issues that legislators, gubernatorial staff members and bar groups have to deal with.

“This is my only issue,” she said.

Biography

Education: B.A., University of Indiana

Area of interest: Representation of indigent criminal defendants

Achievement: Limited waiver of cap on fees for court-appointed attorneys

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