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CR 93-26 Prosectution Services - Legal Assistant , " i Y 0 \ /C , - Staff recommends adoption of the following motion: billing procedure concerning prosecution legal services. Overview. Legal fees billed by the City Attorney for prosecution work has declined in 1991 and 1992 by 23% from 1990. A City staff review revealed 'that the level of prosecution has remained fairly stable during the last few years, with no appreciable 'decline in quality. The change in the use of a legal assistant should reduce the overall cost to the City, e 0 0 0 Supportin2 Information. 0 0 !~ (Il I I I I I I I I ~ ~ " i . - . - CITY OF HOPKINS M E M 0 RAN DUM DATE: February 11, 1993 TO: John Schedler {5 S FROM: Jeremy S. Steiner ' Wynn Curtiss RE: Legal Assistants' Billing This letter follows my recent telephone conversations with both yourself and Steve Mielke regarding the inclusion of billings for legal assistants' time on our January fee statement for prosecution o services rendered to the City of Hopkins. - As we discussed, our annual billings to the City of Hopkins for ., prosecution . services have declined from a total of approximately, $63,000.00, for the calendar year 1990, to approximately $48,500.00, for the calendar year 1992. This represents a decrease of almost 25 percent in billings for prosecution services over a 24 month period of time. While there has been a slight decrease in the volume of legal services provided to the City of Hopkins by this office due to changes in bad check policies and statutory changes regarding the method of charging gross misdemeanor offenses, there clearly has not been a 25 percent decrease in the prosecu"tion work load or the numbex' of cases prosecuted by this. office for the City. We believe that a primary reason for the reduction in our billings to the City for prosecution services is that we have shifted responsibility for a variety of services previously performed by attorneys to legal assistants. While we were in the process of transferring these responsibilities to our prosecution legal assistant, we did not bill the City of Hopkins for leg"al assistants' ti.me. This has been a primary factor in reducing our billings to the City while maintaining a volume of prosecution work similar to the volume processed in previous years. Our prosecution legal assistant currently performs a variety of services that were previously performed by lawyers, and have now been reflected on the January prosecution billing to the City of Hopkins under the heading "Legal Assistant Billings". These . services i.nclude the following: 1010 First Street South, Hopkins, Minnesota 55343 612/935-8474 An Equal Opportunity Employer ;; '. , - John Schedler February 11, 1993 Page 2 Reviewing case status reports periodically received from District Court and ordering the appropriate police reports and records from the Hopkins Police Department, County Sheriff, State Patrol, Department of Public Safety and other agencies. Reviewing files scheduled for Pretrial Conferences, Court Trials and Jury Trials and notifying and scheduling officers and other witnesses to be available for or present at trial. Contacting Judges' offices, District Court and Court Reporters to obtain records of previous criminal proceedings, as required for prosecution of pending matters. Responding to requests from defendants and their attorneys for copies of police reports and other records relating to pending cases. Periodically reviewing case status reports from District Court and pending cases for the purpose of obtaining records and - reports, assembling case files and preparing for Court appearances. Preparing preliminary drafts of criminal complaints to be reviewed and approved by the prosecuting attorneys. Letters to defendants concerning delinquent tickets and obtaining reports to issue criminal complaints when defendants do not respond. Notifying the Hopkins Police Department of all defendants who do not appear for their Court appearances so that warrants can be served upon them. All of the above services are tasks that appropriately can be performed by a legal assistant under the supervision of one of the prosecuting attorneys. By shifting these duties to a legal assistant, we are able to reduce fees to the City by billing these items at the $40.00 per . hour rate that we currently charge our clients for legal assistants' time. While we have not billed the City for this time in the past, it has now become apparent that we have transferred so many duties to the prosecution legal assistant that our monthly billings for the last two years have not fairly reflected the prosecution legal services that are actually being provided to the City of Hopkins by this office. If the billing of legal assistants' time for prosecution services is approved by the . City, I am confident that the fees paid by the City for prosecution services will continue to be significantly less than fees for prosecution services in previous years because we will be billing legal assistants' time at a lesser rate than attorneys' time. --, '. .' ~ - John Schedler ~ February 11, 1993 Page 3 By this Memo, we are requestinq" 'approval of a new billing. procedure for prosecution services whereby we will separately itemize and charge the City of Hopkins, at the rate of $40.00 per hour, for. legal . assistants' time in providing the types of prosecution services listed in this MemO. The $40.00 per hour rate is the rate that we currently charging for legal assistants' time to all clients of Vesely, Miller & Steiner. Please submit this request to the City Council at the Council's next meeting. You should, of course, feel free to call me if you have any questions or require additional information. . . JSS - . ... , . Leaal Assistant Billinqs :'""' '1" ,J , 01/04/93 Mem<:, to Police Department requesteing _ pollee reports for cases scheduled for future Probable Cause and Pretrial hear~ngs. Draft letters send~ng pol~ce r::ports to ~efendants' attorneys. Prepare W~tness Not~ces re Jury Trials and Court Trials. J!' 01/05/93 Prepare Witness Notice re Jury Trials and . Court Trials. No Show Memo to Sgt. Hafermann. Memo to Police Department requesting police reports. Prepare letters to. defendants re delinquent tickets. Research and telephone call to Court re prior offense for Scheidler. 2.3 92.00 01/11/93 Review case status report ,from District Court, order police, reports and DL records, prepare files for cases scheduled for Pretrials, Probable Cause Hearings and Jury Trials and close files on completed - cases. 'Prepare-letter and Rules 7 and 9 Notices for Camp. No Show Memo to Sgt. Hafermann. Prepare letters sending police reports re Melius and S. Peterson. Draft Complaints. 120.00 01/12/93 Draft Complaints. 20.00 01/13/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Prepare Witness Notices for Foreman and ' Jayasuriya. 'Review case status, report from District Court, order police reports and DL records, prepare files for cases scheduled for Pretrials, probable Cause Hearings and Jury,Trials and close files on completed cases. No Show Memo to Sgt. Hafe~ann. Letter sending police reports re Schoenecker. 2.2 88.00 - 01/1~/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Letter sending Rules 7 and 9 to attorney re Mehle. Prepare Witness Notice for Camp case. 3.2 128.00 01/15/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Letter ordering driver's license records . from Minnesota Department of Public Safety. .9 36.00 01/18/93 W~tness Not~ces and Subpoenas ~n Edwards case. Letter filing Rules 7. and 9 with the Court. .4 16.00 01/21/93 Letters to defendants re delinquent tickets. ~ . Review case status report from District .,.- Court, order police reports and DL records, prepare files for cases scheduled for ,. Pretrials, Probable Cause Hearings and Jury Trials and close files on completed 1.2 48.00 cases. Letter and Rule 7 re McNamara. 01/22/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. .7 28.00 / 01/25/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. 1.0 40.00 .- /- 01/26/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Prepare Witness Notices and Subpoenas re Scheidler case. Letter ordering certified driver's license records. 1.9 76.00 01/27/93 Telephone conference with Det. Lorentz re Cover case. Review case status report from District Court, order police reports and DL records, prepare files for cases scheduled for Pretrials, Probable Cause Hearings and Jury Trials and close files on completed cases. Prepare Witness Notices and Subpoenas ,. re McNamara and Melius. Letter ordering I' I, driving record. Telephone conferences with State Inspections department re Clausen. 2.0 . 80.00 01/28/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Letters sending police reports re Harms and Kloner. 1.6 64.00 01/29/93 Review police reports and draft Complaints. Prepare Witness Notice re Harrington. Review case status report from District Court, order police reports. and DL records, prepare files for cases scheduled for Pretrials, probable Cause Hearings and Jury Trials and close files on completed cases. 1.1 44.00 24.0 hours at $40.00 per hour: 960.00 . .