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Lawyer Salary Dispute: High Court Grants Scant Relief Over Attorney's Wage Cut

The lawyer questioned an alleged "pay to plea" system that forced criminal defendants to prepay their fines and court costs before being allowed to plead guilty.

January 06, 2023 at 11:26 AM

4 minute read

Lawyer Compensation - Government

Adolfo Pesquera

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What You Need to Know

Citing intermediate appeals court error, a county attorney was allowed to amend his appeal of sanctions awarded against him.
The county attorney, however, was found to lack authority to introduce Texas as a plaintiff.
The dispute occurred when the commissioners court cut his salary after he fought a program to make criminal defendants pay all fines and costs before being allowed to plea.

The Texas Supreme Court had no sympathy for a county attorney who name-dropped the state as plaintiff in what amounted to a personal dispute with the Kinney County Commissioners Court over his salary.

But Kinney County Attorney Todd Durden did manage to get a reversal on the sanctions that a trial judge slapped him with for bringing the lawsuit.

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