To the editor,

This letter is in response to my good friend Susan Keith’s letter to the Editor dated 30 August, 2005.

Susan questioned the Attorney General, Troy King’s judgment when “he rendered his infamous opinion that prohibits attorneys from recovering overhead expenses in indigent cases.”

Though I agree with Mrs. Keith’s judgment that the elderly, poor and neglected children will suffer, I can tell you why the Attorney General had to make this decision.

If you recall a few months ago when the Democratic Legislature was debating the state budget, Paul Hubbard was demanding a 6 percent pay raise for teachers which was rejected by Governor Riley as well as 6 percent pay raise for state employees.

The Democratic Legislature over ruled and implemented a 6 percent pay raise for both parties.

The state only has so much revenue to operate on, therefore: cuts have to be made in other agencies in order to compensate for these raises.

Mrs. Keith being the wife of the Chairman of Dallas County Democratic Party and a local attorney surely understands this situation.

Having recently observed a divorce in Selma resulting in a cost in excess of $12,000 without a verbal debate in the Courtroom, I feel sure local attorneys will make-up for this shortage by increasing fees of those who can afford to pay.

As a renowned and well known black attorney states at the beginning of his weekly radio show, “It’s OK to call a Fool a Fool if he is a Fool,” however; I don’t think in this case the Attorney General is “The Fool.”

The Democratic Legislature caused this action.

Who’s “The Fool?”

Col. Brock Wells