Standard Five: Administrative Expenses

American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice, Standard 5-1.4, Supporting Services and Training, supra, p. 47.

American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice, Standard 5-3.3, Facilities, library:
Every defender office should be located in a place convenient to the courts and be furnished in a manner appropriate to the dignity of the legal profession. A library of sufficient size, considering the needs of the office and the accessibility of other libraries, and other necessary facilities and equipment should be provided.

Commentary:
The equipment of the defender program should include all of the modern accouterments found in today's law office. Thus, there should be systems for communications and reproductions, specialized investigative equipment, and perhaps data-processing capabilities for record keeping, to mention just a few examples. The defender program must also have its own library, including, especially, materials dealing with criminal defense. The presence of other law libraries in the vicinity of the defender office may make the purchase of less widely used volumes unnecessary, but should not serve as an excuse for failing to establish any library at all.

National Study Commission on Defense Services, Guidelines for Legal Defense Systems in the United States, 1976, Guideline 3.4, Nonpersonnel Needs in Defender Offices:
Defender offices should have a budget for operating expenses that provides for a professional quality office, library and equipment comparable to a private law firm of similar size. Facilities and resources should be at least comparable to, and in no event less than, that provided for other components of the justice system with whom the defender must interact, such as the courts, prosecution, and the police.

Defender office facilities should include separate offices for management, legal and social work staff, shared space for investigators, paraprofessionals and other support staff, secure space for confidential records, equipment and petty cash, and reasonable allocations of ancillary space related to staff size for reception and client waiting areas, conference rooms and library, mailroom and reproduction, supplies and storage. Separate toilet facilities should be provided for staff. Parking should be provided for staff who require the use of an automobile for field tasks.

Defender office budgets should include funds for procurement of experts and consultants, ordering of minutes and transcripts on an expedited basis and for the procurement of other necessary services. Defender offices should not be required to seek prior approval or post-expenditure ratification of payments for such services except in those limited cases where the expenditure is extraordinary.

Defender offices should be equipped with quality communications and reproduction equipment. Where data requirements so warrant, defender offices should have data processing facilities and services on lease or contract which are designed for defender requirements. If the defender office is included in a criminal justice information system, the system should be required to meet defender specifications regarding reporting frequency, data definition and format.

Defender offices should be exempt from governmental public bidding requirements for purchasing where the public bidding process cannot be completed for timely acquisition of services or equipment.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Standards for Defender Services, 1976, Standard I-3:
The state has the responsibility to insure adequate funding of defender offices and appointed counsel programs charged with state and local offenses. The defender office and appointed counsel programs may be organized and administered at either state, regional or local government level, whichever is the most efficient and practical and is best able to achieve adequacy of funding and independent for the office.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Standards for Defender Services, 1976, Standard IV-2a-e.
The budget of the defender for operational expenses other than the costs of personnel should be substantially equivalent and certainly not less (where such comparisons are relevant) to that provided for other components of the justice system with whom the defender must interact, such as the courts, prosecution, the private bar and the police. Therefore, his budget must include:
1. Sufficient office expense to afford quarters, facilities, copying equipment, and communications consistent with those enjoyed by competent private counsel in comparable law practice.
2. A sufficiently extensive library as part of his office (and of each branch thereof) to meet any research need mandated by the duties of his office. If appellate functions are performed, such library should be not less extensive than that furnished the appellate courts and the state's appellate counsel.
3. Tape-recording, photographic and other investigative equipment of a sufficient quantity, quality and versatility to permit preservation of all visible, spoken or other preservable evidence under all circumstances.
4. Funds for the confidential employment of experts and specialists, such as psychiatrists, criminalistics, forensic pathologists and other scientific experts generally in all cases in which the same may be of assistance to the defense.
5. Sufficient funds or means of transportation to permit the office to fulfill its travel needs, including court attendance, professional meeting attendance and training needs. The defender's office should not at any time have to seek funds from courts to perform its functions.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association Standards for Defender Services, 1976, Standard IV-5:
The defender office, and each branch thereof, should have immediate access to, and privacy within, a library containing all materials necessary to the practice of those areas of law properly handled by such office, including loose leaf and other services affording prompt advance notice of legal developments, and further including medical, scientific and other technical works necessary to the competent practice of such law and investigation of defenses under same.