Marc Shreeman says he comes from a public service background. "My parents were both public school teachers," he says, adding that he became an attorney to continue that legacy, working to improve the Wayne County community where he grew up.
Though his day job involves practicing family law, probate, and personal injury, he always kept a side job that he says "fulfilled my need to do public service where it was really needed," representing families in the county's juvenile division. This division handles both neglect and abuse cases, which focus on parents and their parenting ability, as well as delinquency cases, which involve crimes committed by juveniles. The county pays for the attorneys who represent people in these cases.
Unfortunately, the pay is why he and many others cannot afford to work in the juvenile division full-time. For over three decades, juvenile trial attorneys in Wayne County say they haven't gotten a raise. They claim the fees they receive today for juvenile cases are the same as they were in 1990. Because of this, the county has struggled to attract new lawyers, and the number of active juvenile attorneys has dropped dramatically.
"Approximately four years ago, we had 120 lawyers on the list of attorneys that were willing to accept cases in the Wayne County Juvenile Division. And now the entire list has gone down below 60 attorneys. And of those 60, there's about 20 that don't even do any work. They're just names still on the list. So there's really only about 40 lawyers that are actually doing the work," Shreeman says.
He tells me that at 66 years old, he's still below the median age of attorneys doing this work.
"This is a real red flag issue, it should be for anyone who cares about the quality of justice in Wayne County."
Wayne County's low pay stands out when compared to nearby areas. For example, in Oakland County, Shreeman says attorneys are paid significantly more for their work.
He claims a case that goes to trial, including a preliminary hearing and a pretrial, pays an attorney up to $1,000. In Wayne County, the identical three hearings only pay $500.
"This is a dire issue. We are the largest county in the state of Michigan. We're losing more than gaining attorneys," says Rita White, who spoke at a recent Wayne County Ways and Means Committee meeting where the issue was brought to the commission to "nudge things along or to keep an eye on it." The Ways and Means Committee is responsible for managing a county's finances.
Wayne County Chief Financial Officer, John Wallace, noted that while the county is "still evaluating" how to fund the raises, a resolution is not guaranteed during the current budget's technical amendment phase. He suggested that a solution might be possible "early into the fiscal '26 season," possibly by the first quarter of the new fiscal year (around March).
This is not a new issue. According to Shreeman, the former presiding judge of the Wayne County Juvenile Court had "commenced a process more than two years ago" and made recommendations to the court about making changes. Frank Hardester, the executive court administrator, confirmed that a report was submitted to his office "some time ago" and that the court has been in monthly conversations with the county executive's office since May.
"It's a complicated issue, but we're eager and we actually do support the fact that increases are needed. And it's a matter of where those funds are going to be coming from," says Hardester.
This particular issue is tricky because the funding for these attorneys is controlled by the county, not the court. Shreeman says the person who can change these numbers is the Chief Executive Officer of Wayne County, Warren Evans, and his financial team. The money for these attorney wages doesn't come directly from the court's budget; it has to be officially requested from and approved by the Wayne County Executive's office. Essentially, the court and the commission both agree on the need for raises, but the money for them is controlled by the county executive's office. This is why the court's administration and the attorneys had to attend the Ways and Means Committee meeting to lobby for the funds.
The County Treasurer did not return requests for comment.
When asked what the holdup was, Shreeman says they're "kind of like the stepchild that nobody really cares about because we're all independent attorneys," and that the county executive's office is "focused on other things." Still, lawyers like Shreeman, who were present at the meeting, insisted that action needs to be taken now before more attorneys leave the system.
"This isn't about just greedy lawyers and make a lot of money wanting to make more money. This is about attracting new and aggressive and idealistic attorneys to carry on the tradition of public service."
