Attorney Ratios: Comparing Bell County

After seeing how the four counties on either side of Bell County compare to us on court appointed attorney fees, I was curious if the pay rate has anything to do with attorney density.  So, I went to the State Bar of Texas, Department of Research and Analysis.  I bet a lot of you have never heard of this part of the State Bar, but you should have.  If you have a statistical question about Texas attorneys, they probably have the answer.

To get the number of attorneys in each of the four closest counties on either side of Bell County (population wise), I looked at the most recent data available in the State Bar’s Attorney Population Density by Metropolitan Statistical Area Report: 2005-06. That report shows that each county has the following number of attorneys:

The ratio shows you how many attorneys there are for each person in that county.  For example, in Bell County, there is only one attorney for every 993 persons in the county.  That’s the most favorable attorney-to-potential client ratio around for counties our size. 

Also, keep in mind, that not every attorney practices criminal defense law.  One of the few things that you cannot get from the State Bar is a percentage of attorneys that practice criminal law.  The closest thing that I could find was that about 3% of all Texas attorneys belong to the criminal justice section of the State Bar.  I imagine that there are many attorneys who aren’t members of the criminal justice section since the criminal justice section of the State Bar is such a joke right now. 

So, is there a connection between attorney density and court appointed attorney fees?  It appears there might be.  Look at Jefferson County.  They pay the worst, a flat $50 per hour.  However, they also have the most attorneys per population ratio for counties our size.  There are just too many attorneys there to justify paying more than what the market likely will bear there.  Also, Webb County appears to pay the best, and they have an attorney to population ratio about the same as Bell County.  There are anomalies, though.  Williamson County for example pays horribly compared to how many attorneys live in that county.  I would suspect they get a lot of Travis County attorneys; plus, keep in mind that they are being sued by the Task Force on Indigent Defense right now anyway.  So, maybe it’s not the greatest idea to look at Williamson County to see what we should be doing!

By the way, the State Bar has determined that the average hourly rate for retained criminal defense attorneys in Texas is $207.  The median amount is $175 per hour.

One would think that since Bell County has the fewest attorneys per resident of all counties our size that we’d be paid the highest court appointed attorney fees.  Any idea why we aren’t?

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