Pleading the Sixth: Imagine holding the same job for 30 years without ever once receiving a raise. If that job required you to pay for many of the associated costs of doing business, inflation alone would have significantly decreased your…
Tag: conflicts
Wisconsin’s low attorney compensation rates create conflicts for the indigent accused
Tagged with: assigned counsel, compensation & expenses, conflicts, contracts - flat fee, Ten Principles, Wisconsin
Delaware’s right to counsel deficiencies exposed
Pleading the Sixth: In January 2011, then-Chief Justice Myron Steele sought to end Delaware’s undue judicial interference in the state’s conflict indigent defense services by transferring responsibility for the administration of the conflict panel from the court to the Office…
Idaho passes initial reforms; Second round of reforms introduced
Pleading the Sixth: The Idaho Senate unanimously passed an initial indigent defense reform package, sending it on for the Governor’s signature. Not content to rest with creating a uniform standard of indigency and barring children from waiving counsel, among others…
Idaho legislature contemplates initial reforms
Pleading the Sixth: The Idaho Criminal Justice Commission offered initial indigent defense reforms that have been introduced in the House of Representatives. The proposed reforms seek to, among other things: create a statewide uniform standard for who may get public…
New reports promote public defender model for Texas
Pleading the Sixth: Two new independent reports out of Texas conclude that the public defender model provides better, more cost-efficient representation than the assigned counsel model. In a companion piece, a 2011 U.S. Department of Justice report makes the same argument.…
Tagged with: assigned counsel, conflicts, DOJ, Harris County TX, public defender office, standards, Ten Principles, Texas, Wichita County TX
MO prosecutors take issue with state court decision on PD caseload controls
Pleading the Sixth: (Part 2 of a two-part series.) On July 31, 2012, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state public defender commission has the authority to declare unavailability due to case overload. In response, the Missouri Association of Prosecuting…
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