Defending People

the tao of criminal-defense trial lawyering

Would a Group of Lawyers Offering this Service be a “Cover Band”?

I wrote last Decem­ber about cover, and a prob­lem that arose because the lawyer whom I had asked to cover for me hadn’t been dili­gent. Today I learned (H/T A Pub­lic Defender) that in L.A. there’s a lawyer, Steve Levy, who offers cover to other lawyers for pay.

I’ve read “The Lin­coln Lawyer”, so I under­stand how in L.A. County, with its pro­lif­er­a­tion of crim­i­nal cour­t­houses, lawyers might need cover more often than in a place like Hous­ton, with one (at least until the next Bib­li­cal scourge is vis­ited on 1201 Franklin Street). But every criminal-defense lawyer in Los Ange­les would seem to be pretty much in the same boat as all of the others.

Is the Bank really so defunct in Los Ange­les that lawyers can’t be counted on to cover for each other gratis?

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About The Author

Mark Bennett got his letter of marque from the Supreme Court of Texas in May 1995. He is famous for having no sense of humor when it comes to totalitarianism.

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One Response to “Would a Group of Lawyers Offering this Service be a “Cover Band”?”

  1. Rob Deters says:

    Mark —

    I went back to pre­vi­ous post about a cover attorney…my my am I jeal­ous of a crim­i­nal defense sys­tem with ONE cour­t­house. There are six cir­cuit courts in Cook County, five pre­lim­i­nary cour­t­houses (in sep­a­rate build­ings), one domes­tic rela­tions court (which han­dles crim­i­nal domes­tic abuse ONLY), not to men­tion the smat­ter­ing of clients I get in Lake, Du Page, and Will Counties…of which only Will County has only one cour­t­house. I can lit­er­ally drive over 100 miles in a day just mak­ing sta­tus dates. Lord. Must be nice!

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