Arlington Lawyer Honored for Service to Poor
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth) December 13, 2007 Section: B Arlington lawyer honored for service to poor MAX B. BAKER, Star-Telegram staff writer Don Hase got one of his Christmas presents early. The Arlington attorney went to Austin Wednesday for what he thought would be a run-of-the-mill meeting and instead was surprised when the state Task Force on Indigent Defense recognized his work to improve legal representation for poor criminal defendants. "It blew me away. I had no idea," Hase said. "This was a well-kept secret." Hase received the Robert O. Dawson Indigent Defense Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes outstanding contribution by a group or an individual to improving the system. Dawson, who championed efforts to give the poor better legal representation, died in 2005. The Fair Defense Act went into effect in 2002 requiring all Texas counties to change the way they provide legal services to the poor, including how lawyers are selected and paid and which defendants qualify as indigent. To comply with the law, Tarrant County established an "appointment wheel" that assigns attorneys within the 48-hour time limit required. They are randomly selected from a list of eligible lawyers. Hase is credited with helping Tarrant County improve its indigent defense system in several ways, including establishing a process for screening defendants to determine if they qualify for a court-appointed attorney paid for by taxpayers. "Not only does he render outstanding service to his clients, he seeks to improve the quality of the practice of law," said Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge Brent Carr. "To know Mr. Hase is to hope that our profession will have many more like him." State District Judge Sharen Wilson said that when the county first started its indigent defense system, Hase didn't like it. But, instead of just griping, he worked within the system to make it better. "What he has done is never give up. Persistence ought to be rewarded," Wilson said. "He didn't like it, so he kept fixing it. Can you say anything better about somebody than they saw something that wasn't right and they kept working on it until it was better." A former Tarrant County prosecutor, Hase is a partner in the Ball & Hase law firm in Arlington. He is past president of the Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. He graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1981. At the task force's meeting, Tarrant County was awarded about $1.5 million in grant funds to help pay for its indigent defense programs. The county received $766,898 for increased indigent defense costs and an additional $741,947 as part of an equalization grant for being one of the counties that got less than 23 percent reimbursement from the state to cover higher court costs. The county spent about $10.7 million for indigent defense in the county and state district courts in 2007, records show. "These grants provide much needed relief for local jurisdictions dealing with increased indigent defense costs and pave the way for further improvements in indigent relief in Texas," Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said in a prepared statement. Whitley is a member of the task force. |
