Officials: SoFla’s high cost of living incompatible with state-set attorney salaries

Low pay for prosecutors and public defenders is draining lawyerly talent from South Florida, according to a news conference that drew Miami-Dade County’s Public Defender and State Attorneys from Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties.

Attorney salaries the Legislature sets start at $50,000. That’s become unworkable with South Florida’s cost of living, officials said, according to the Miami Herald.

In the past year, Monroe County lost nine of its 15 assistant state attorneys. Palm Beach County lost 80% of its applicants and 80 employees resigned in Miami-Dade’s State Attorney’s office.

The assembled called on the state Legislature to increase salaries.

– Anne Geggis, Florida Politics