I"m a little late with this story, but via Pdstuff comes the link to some good news.

Since 2003, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been pushing legislation that would grant student loan relief to public sector lawyers in the criminal justice system. With the Democrats in control of Congress, Durbin plans to reintroduce his bill early next year. Some hope it finally has a chance of passing.

To remedy the problem, Durbin is pushing the Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act. If passed into law, the Justice Department would pay up to $10,000 a year of the law school loans of any prosecutor or public defender. To qualify, a lawyer would have to commit to three years of service. Loan assistance would be capped at $60,000 per lawyer and would apply only to loans made through federal programs.

This certainly is heartening for us and I sincerely hope that it passes. The NACDL has been advocating it for a while now.


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