Transcript THE PUBLIC DEFENDER MODEL - Bexar County Task Force

The Public Defender
Model
Bexar County Task Force Meeting
March 9, 2011
What Is the Public Defender
Model?
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Involves a public or private non-profit
organization with full or part-time salaried
staff attorneys and personnel.
The model may provide services to all
indigent clients or target a special
population.
History of the Public Defender
Model in Texas
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Prior to the FDA, only five Texas counties
operated public defender offices serving
adult defendants. These included
Colorado, Dallas, El Paso, Webb, and
Wichita counties.
Now there are 18 PDs in Texas serving in
at least some types of cases in roughly
110 of Texas’s 254 counties.
Public Defenders in Texas
Advantages of the Public
Defender Model
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Generally, PDs can provide comparable
quality legal services at less cost than any
other indigent defense delivery method.
Public defender budgeting is simpler and
more predictable than budgeting for
payment of private attorneys whose work
practices, billing practices, and caseloads
fluctuate every month of every year.
Advantages of the Public
Defender Model
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The group practice of law allows attorneys
to learn from one another, match staff
experience to work demands, develop and
preserve institutional methods of
performing work.
Public Defenders can attract additional
resources to minimize costs including
grants, fellowships and law-student
assistance.
Advantages of the Public
Defender Model
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Some non-profit public defenders can also offer
indigent defendants civil legal services,
particularly on mental health issues, that can
minimize the costs of involvement in the criminal
justice system.
Judges and county administrators find that less
administrative work is necessary to oversee
indigent defense with the public defender model
(i.e., no attorney fee vouchers to review,
approve, and pay).
Advantages of the Public
Defender Model
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Public defenders serve a resource for
public officials and the defense bar (i.e.,
CLE training).
Disadvantages of the Public
Defender Model
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Hiring staff, securing office space and
equipment, establishing internal office
practices and procedures, and modifying
existing procedures may require significant
start up costs.
The Feasibility of a Public
Defender Model
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Public defender offices offer important
quality controls that assigned counsel and
contract programs do not have, including
office policies, in-house training, and
supervision.
PD offices allow counties to maintain
better and more accurate metrics of
indigent defense.
The Feasibility of a Public
Defender Model
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An adequately funded public defender system
should result in the same or better quality
representation, better dependability, and less
cost for the same scope of indigent defense
representation.
This improvement results from the institutional
nature of public defender offices, not because
public defenders are better attorneys than
private assigned counsel.
The Feasibility of a Public
Defender Model
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Cost per case for public defenders is
almost always lower than costs for
assigned counsel in the same county.
Cost savings from PDs are also found in
decreased pretrial incarceration costs from
aggressive bond reduction practice and
earlier disposition of cases.
State-Wide Cost Comparison
FY 2010
Potential Grant Funding
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Discretionary grants from TFID could
support PD formation by county
Grants are 4 years with 50-50 StateCounty match over time period
FY2013 is next available grant period
(FY2012 Intent to Submit Applications
were due February 25th)
Resources
Blueprint for Creating a Public Defender Office
http://www.courts.state.tx.us/tfid/pdf/Blueprint.pdf
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Task Force on Indigent Defense Annual Report
http://www.courts.state.tx.us/tfid/pdf/FY10AnnualReportTFID.pdf
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