State and district attorneys around the country are complaining they're having trouble recruiting and retaining young lawyers because they simply can't pay enough.

Public defenders are having the same problem as the rising cost of a law school education and the cost of living has far outpaced salaries for government criminal lawyers.

Recruiters on both sides of the courtroom aisle are competing with private firms that pay double and triple what they can offer, and even with other government agencies that pay far more.

Locally, the Miami-Dade state attorney's office starts lawyers out at just under $40,000. The Miami-Dade public defender's office pays new attorneys $42,000.

Lawyers straight out of law school make about $80,000 at the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office. The top private firms have starting salaries of $130,000 or more in Miami.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle and Broward State Attorney Mike Satz have been lobbying the Legislature for more money.

"You have to at least make it so that they can pay their bills. None of these new lawyers believe that they're going to get rich. And frankly we're not talking about necessarily even competing with the private law firms. We're talking about competing with other public sector jobs, " Fernández Rundle said.

Fernández Rundle wants to raise starting salaries to $50,000 and add a pay differential to take into account South Florida's higher cost of living compared to the rest of the state.

Miami-Dade Chief Assistant Public Defender Carlos Martinez said his office's recruitment efforts often derail when aspiring lawyers weigh the cost of living in Miami-Dade versus Jacksonville or Central Florida and realize they'll make the same no matter where they work in the state.

Both would like to see some debt forgiveness legislation for young attorneys in their offices.

Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, is working on the loan issue, with a bill that would pay as much at $44,000 of an attorney's school loans as long as they continued to work in the public defenders or state attorney's offices. The bill requires the attorneys stay at those offices for three years before being eligible and only pays a few thousand a year, encouraging attorneys who want to work in the public sector to stay.

Porth is a Broward assistant state attorney, and says the only reason he's been able to stay in the office for 12 years is because he didn't have any school loans. He said he's seen many colleagues leave over the years, "not because they don't absolutely love their work, but because they have burdensome loans that keep them from being able to stay."

But he acknowledged his bill has little chance this year, with legislators trying to lower taxes even as revenues are dropping.

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