Can I please get any feedback from County Attorneys, D.A.s, and C.D.A.s as to whether their commissioners court funds,by way of an increased amount over the pay received by other attorneys, the salaries of those attorneys who have achieved a board certification from the state bar. Please call me at 281-341-4469, as I would like to discuss the amount funded and any other requirements with you. Thank you for your time.

In the eyes of my Commissioners, (sa well as in the indigent defense plan), one lawyer is as good as another. THere is no extra pay for extra larnin'

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

John Healey is from the great state of Connecticut, so he might not understand what larnin' is, even though he has been in Texas awhile.

My experience in 3 DA's offices (Tarrant, Collin, & Denton) is that pay is not supplemented if you are board certified. But I believe Collin County was considering it as recently as last year.

JAS

Our county gives certificate pay for deputies. I think it's $150.00 per month for master peace officers and $100 for intermediates. I'll bet other counties do a similar thing. It certainly seems logical to reward prosecutors who "go the extra mile" and become criminal law experts... I think it would be worth a try.

williamson county has been awfully quiet.

The pay scale for assistant district attorneys in Williamson County is determined by two factors:

(1) years of experience as a prosecutor and

(2) board certification in criminal law.

All prosecutors are hired with the expectation that they will seek certification upon becoming eligible or soon thereafter.

Out of the 12 prosecutors (including myself) in the office, all but 3 are board certified.

If you would like the details on how the plan was drawn up and submitted to the commissioners court, I recommend contacting John Willingham, the director of human resources who helped me construct the reclassification of our attorney salaries to reflect those factors. He did a great job and had no problem convincing the commissioners court of its wisdom.

but you forgot the no-nudity requirement.

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Our county gives certificate pay for deputies. I think it's $150.00 per month for master peace officers and $100 for intermediates. I'll bet other counties do a similar thing. It certainly seems logical to reward prosecutors who "go the extra mile" and become criminal law experts... I think it would be worth a try.

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Denton County did not pay extra for the board certification, but they do have incentive pay if you have a degree that is related, but not required, for your job. Master's degree in a related field (e.g., criminal justice) earned an extra $100/month.

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Originally posted by David Newell:
but you forgot the no-nudity requirement.

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David,

The nudity addendum applies to ALL Williamson County employees, residents and (especially) visitors. It is of such a long standing tradition, indeed a hallmark of life, in the community as to be understood to be a "practice" or "standard" and thus requires no notice, codification in the public laws or citation in employee regulations to be universally understood and enforceable in all aspects of public and private life.

The Travis Co. DA's office used to give a bump for certification. I'm not sure if they still do, but you could check.

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Originally posted by ML:
Our county gives certificate pay for deputies. I think it's $150.00 per month for master peace officers and $100 for intermediates. I'll bet other counties do a similar thing. It certainly seems logical to reward prosecutors who "go the extra mile" and become criminal law experts... I think it would be worth a try.

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Could you work on that for both counties in your jurisdiction?

Did you know there is a new criminal law category being developed for board certification? It is criminal appellate, including postconviction remedies such as writs. Might also include juvenile appellate.