The PD Blues

Blondie has a really good post about the frustrations of being a PD. I must admit, I have been feeling rather blue and extremely stressed recently. The type of crap she describes has really been affecting me more than usual lately. While it is certainly not pleasant, most of the times I don't let clients' grumbling really bother me but for some reason it really has in the past few weeks.

As I blogged recently, I got a hung jury recently on a case that, considering how the jury arrived at its (non) decision was a good job for us. After talking to the jury, I realized that the way I saw this case was substantially different than the way they saw the case. In talking with my client, I explained that I would be doing the case differently and not the way we had done it at the first trial. No real big surprise there. Client went ballistic. Claimed I was sabotaging his case and I was in cahoots with the DA, etc., etc., etc. I am not violating any attorney-client privilege because this is what the client told the reporter who covered his trial. Nice to see that show up in the local news. He then filed the ubiquitous and mandatory motions to have me removed from his case because I am working so hard to get him convicted.

I have another client who called me the day before trial and begged me to persuade the DA to re-open the plea offer, which had passed at an earlier trial call. Part of the reason it had passed was that the DA had to make travel arrangements for a number of witnesses to be flown to the trial venue. I notified the court and the plea hearing was set last week. The day after I request the plea hearing, about 8 or 9 court days before the actual hearing, the client calls and wants me to re-negotiate or he's going to trial. I have spent probably four days total of the last 12 talking to this guy and telling him that 1) we've already accepted the deal; 2) even so, the DA won't budge; 3) I do not now have time to try this case for a substantial amount of time because I have a number of other cases set during the trial weeks in this jurisdiction; 4) the proposed sentence is in fact constitutional under Blakely and Alaska constitutional law; 5) it is time for him to decide whether he wants to plead or go to trial; and 6) he should get his legal advice from his attorney and not from other inmates. Meanwhile, I'm watching all of this time I had scheduled for motion work on several upcoming cases flit away.

So what to do? I don't know how other attorneys handle it, but I know that when this stuff starts getting to me, I need a break. It does not have to be a long one, but I need to get out and spend a day with a fly rod, going for large trout or silver salmon. Or maybe with a rifle trying to get a moose or a caribou. Unfortunately, trout season is closed (as is moose and caribou and the salmon are not running yet. We have not reached breakup yet (this is where the ice goes out of the lakes), although the rivers are fairly clear. I think this is proof that I need to get a good 4-weight rod and go after some grayling. A day on a river, smoke a cigar, drink some Scotch. Don't answer the phone and think about perfecting that backcast. Just don't know how likely it will be that happens anytime soon. What other coping strategies for the stress of this job does anybody out there use?