SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hundreds of Sacramento County attorneys went on strike Monday seeking a pay increase. It started at 10 a.m. in front of the main courthouse in Downtown Sacramento.
"Ninety-four percent of our union voted to strike and we start on Monday," said TeriAnn Grimes, a homicide and cold case prosecutor with the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. "We are experiencing a lack of experienced attorneys for serious cases in our unit because everyone is leaving for better-paying jobs."
The strike also included attorneys with the Department of Child Support Services and the Public Defender's Office.
The Sacramento County Attorneys' Association said it believes its members deserve at least a 5.5% raise, but said the county only offered them a cost of living adjustment.
A Sacramento County spokesperson told ABC10 annual salaries for attorneys are well above market averages, ranging from $204,000 to $247,000, and market data does not support such a raise.
"Attorneys with eight, nine, ten, plus years of experience are leaving to other offices," said Quoc To, a senior attorney in the Public Defender's Office. "It was a take it or leave it offer. We believe that we deserved more based on the salary survey that we provided to the county."
The strike isn't expected to impact all court proceedings.
"We will show up for every trial that's already in progress. We will show up for last-day trials, meaning that the accused has a constitutional right to have it within a statutory period, we will show up for the end of that statutory period. We will show up for our last day preliminary hearings," Grimes said.
