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Standard Eighteen: Guidelines for Awarding Defense Contracts
- National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelines for Negotiating and Awarding Indigent Legal Defense Contracts, 1983 Draft, Guideline IV-3, Awarding the Contract:
- Contracts should include provisions which ensure quality legal representation and fully describe the rights and duties of the parties, including the compensation of the contractor.
- Contracts for services should include, but not be limited to, the following subjects:
- the categories of cases in which the contractor is to provide services;
- the term of the contract and the responsibility of the contractor for completion of cases undertaken within the contract term;
- the basis and method for determining eligibility of persons served by the contract, consistent with standard 5-7.1;
- allowable workloads for individual attorneys, and measures to address excessive workloads, consistent with standard 5-5.3;
- minimum levels of experience and specific qualification standards for contracting attorneys;
- limitations on the practice of law outside of the contract by the contractor;
- reasonable compensation levels and a designated method of payment;
- sufficient support services;
- supervision, evaluation, training and professional development;
- provision of or access to an appropriate library;
- protection of client confidences, attorney-client information and work product related to contract cases;
- a system of case management and reporting;
- the grounds for termination of the contract by the parties.
- The Policy Board and/or Contracting Authority should award contracts for indigent criminal cases only when it appears that Contractors have adequately addressed the issues stated in these guidelines. Under no circumstances should a contract be awarded on the basis of cost alone. The Policy Board and/or Contracting Authority shall determine whether the proposed budget of a potential Contractor will provide the capability of complying with these Guidelines.
King County Bar Association Indigent Defense Services Task Force, Guidelines for Accreditation of Defender Agencies, 1982, Statement of Purpose:
- The Task Force believes that the fundamental constitutional right to appointed counsel for indigent accused is threatened in King County by the current practice of awarding contracts for public defense services based primarily on a fixed fee per case, without consideration of clearly expressed criteria of quality.
While recognizing that government must contain costs, the Task Force strongly believes that the quality of representation must be ensured in awarding contracts for public defense services. Quality standards should include attorney caseload maximums, staffing and investigator ratios, training and supervision guidelines, criteria for physical facilities, and measures to ensure financial accountability.
To this end, contracts should be awarded only after an independent body has determined that the agency or agencies chosen in all likelihood will provide effective assistance of counsel to indigent accused.
American Bar Association, Standards for Criminal Justice, 5-3.3, Report to the Criminal Justice Section Council from the Criminal Justice Standards Committee, 1989:
Disciplinary Counsel - WSBA
