Take home message
Videoconferencing as it is presently implemented in courts frequently does not allow for private attorney-client communications. It is susceptible to technical and other failures, and it is likely it detracts from the quality of attorney-client and other communications in court.

Full report: E. T. Bellone, 2012. “Private Attorney-Client Communication and the Effect of Videoconferencing in the Courtroom.” Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology, vol. 8/1, pp. 24-48.

Research on indigent legal services received a boost in March of 2015, when the research arm of the Department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice convened a national meeting of indigent defense researchers to discuss priorities for the future. NIJ has already devoted funding to several new projects investigating indigent defense, including one co-directed by ILS into counsel at first appearance.

The National Legal Aid and Defender Association has published a new guide to data collection for defenders, which can be found here. This 'toolkit', titled Basic Data Every Defender Program Needs to Track, argues that defenders nationwide, regardless of size, should be tracking certain key pieces of information in every case.

Among other things, the report discusses:

• Why defenders may want to track data (advocacy for clients, programs and policy change)

Take home message
Defendant clients are most satisfied with lawyers who they feel listened to their opinions, were objective and accurate when giving legal advice, were concerned with their needs, and treated them with respect.

• Full report: E. Raaijmakers, J. W. de Keyser, P. Nieuwbeerta and A. J. E. Dirkzwager, 2015. “Criminal Defendants' Satisfaction with Lawyers: Perceptions of Procedural Fairness and Effort of the Lawyer.” Psychology, Crime & Law, vol.21/2, pp.186-201.

On November 21, 2014, ILS organized a national gathering of empirical researchers specializing in indigent legal services at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, CA. Researchers and defenders from across the nation attended, and the presentations were of a very high quality. We hope this will be the first of many such meetings to facilitate the improvement and sharing of research in our field.

Take home message
When surveyed, most defenders and prosecutors implicitly calculate an acceptable plea by looking at two factors: the likely sentence at trial and the probability of a guilty verdict.

• Full report: Shawn Bushway, Allison Redlich and Robert Norris, 2014. “An Explicit Test of Plea Bargaining in the ‘Shadow of Trial.’” Criminology, vol. 52/4, pp.723-754.

In July, 2014, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published two reports on state spending on indigent defense across the United States for the years 2008-2012. The data for the studies came from the Annual Survey of State Government Finances, a dataset maintained by the Census Bureau.

Welcome to the first in an occasional series of blog posts on recent scientific research, bringing important findings to the notice of our defender community. Should you have any questions or information to share, please contact Andrew Davies.

Take home message