We will be posting relevant and recent news related to indigent legal services here. Our inaugural selection is below. Please email Andy Davies with questions, or if you have trouble with any of the links. Please visit often for updates!

• This recent op-ed in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle discussed state responsibility for public defense and imminent changes to those services in Monroe County.


• A New York Times piece highlighted a recent decision in Washington State and a novel 'voucher' program in Texas as innovative approaches to old problems in indigent legal services. In Washington, a judge recently appointed a monitor in Wilbur vs. City of Mount Vernon to remediate the 'systemic deprivation' of the right to counsel in two cities in the state. The voucher program in Comal County, Texas builds on a publication of the Cato Institute in 2010 which called for clients to be able to receive a voucher for legal services and choose their own lawyer.


• An Office of Indigent Legal Services program to provide counsel at arraignment to criminal defendants in Dutchess County recently began operations, as reported here in the Poughkeepsie Journal.


• This report on the Harris County, TX, public defender office established in 2011 reviews a great deal of data on the Office's performance. Overall, the report concludes the office 'adds value' to the criminal justice system, and improves outcomes for clients in the city of Houston.


• This article by Thomas Cohen analyzes data on 87,000 felony cases in 40 of the nation’s 75 largest counties and concludes clients represented by assigned counsel lawyers were more likely to be incarcerated, and were incarcerated longer, than those represented either by public defenders or privately retained counsel. The full citation is as follows: Cohen, T. H., 2014, ‘Who is better at defending criminals? Does type of attorney matter in terms of producing favorable case outcomes,’ in Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 25(1), pp 29-58.