Under California law, counties are required to pay legal defense costs for indigent defendants in adult and juvenile criminal proceedings. The Public Defender represents many such defendants, but cases with multiple indigent defendants (and other circumstances) create a conflict of interest for the Public Defender and typically require the appointment of one or more private criminal defense attorneys. Counties sometimes establish a second Public Defender office to handle conflict cases or contract with a third party—such as a local bar association—to recruit and oversee the provision of legal services in conflict cases. More frequently, however, counties contract with a private firm or group of private attorneys to provide legal representation in such instances, thereby assuring the availability of skilled defense counsel at reasonable cost.
For nearly 40 years, Yolo County has taken the latter approach and contracted with a local group of criminal defense attorneys (often referred to as “the panel”) for conflict indigent defense services. The County Counsel’s office administers contracts for the attorneys and processes claims for reimbursement of certain costs (e.g., investigator fees and other ancillary expenses). On average, each of the panel attorneys generally devotes about 1,600-1,700 hours annually to legal services to indigent defendants under current contracts.
This approach has generally been very satisfactory and, according to the Presiding Judge of Yolo Superior Court, the current panel attorneys are effective and highly-regarded. This Office has similarly found the current panel attorneys to be straightforward to work with and cooperative in addressing any unusual circumstances that arise, such as the occasional need to accept a Court appointment in matters not covered by their existing contracts.
On these grounds, the Office of the County Counsel recommends that the Board authorize new three-year agreements (based on the template included as Exhibit A) with seven attorneys currently serving on the conflict indigent defense panel. Some highlights of the new agreements are as follows:
• Clear descriptions of the scope of services to be provided and the responsibility of individual attorneys for certain related costs (Section I.A-C);
• Equal compensation for all panel attorneys due to changes in Court administration that should result in an equal distribution of workload (Section II.A);
• A provision for good faith negotiations in the event an individual attorney spends substantially more or less time on conflict indigent defense services than expected at the inception of the agreement (Section II.A);
• A well-defined process for any requests for extra compensation (these are not common), including increased discretion for the Office of the County Counsel and a requirement of Board approval of significant additional compensation (Section II.C);
• Termination provisions that allow the County or an attorney to terminate an agreement on 90 days advance notice, as well as related provisions on the post-termination handling of existing cases (Section IV);
• Enhanced case information and workload reporting requirements utilizing a template developed in consultation with the Public Defender (Section VI); and
• Provisions requiring attorney availability by phone or in-person for client meetings and, if an attorney shares office space with another panel attorney, adherence to ethical rules intended to protect client confidences (Section XV).
These are among the provisions are either entirely new or represent significant improvements to the existing agreement (in place since 2006). If authorized by the Board, the Office of the County Counsel will finalize the template with each of the seven attorneys prior to the expiration of the current agreements on June 30, 2016. Information on the professional background of each attorney is included as Exhibit C; some attorneys provided a brief narrative as requested by the County Counsel, while others provided full resumes.
Alternatively, either now or at any point during the three-year contract term, the Board can request that the Office of the County Counsel evaluate other methods of providing conflict indigent defense services. This would include evaluating the viability of a second Public Defender office (a method used in some other California counties) and/or conducting a competitive solicitation process to evaluate the availability and cost of alternative service providers using either law firm or attorney panel model. On balance, this Office believes that the recommended action is the most practical and cost-effective approach presently. A future evaluation of alternatives will be more effective with the additional case information and workload reporting requirements implemented through Section VI of the agreement template. |