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"Public Defenders Sue 23 New Orleans Judges"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Public Defenders Sue 23 New Orleans Judges by Sabrina Canfield in Courthouse News Service: The Louisiana Public Defender Board sued 23 New Orleans judges who fail to collect a $35 fee from criminal defendants who appear before them. The fee, which is mandatory, helps fund public defenders offices, and the judges' refusal to collect it has resulted in "critical underfunding" of the New Orleans Public Defender's Office, according to the complaint. Louisiana is the only state that doesn't fund most of the cost of indigent defense through state and local budgets. Instead, most of its money comes from the courts themselves, through traffic fees and fines and - in theory - in $35 fees from criminal defendants.

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).