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Standard Sixteen: Cause for Termination or Removal of Attorney
- American Bar Association, Standards for Criminal Justice, Standard 5-1.3, Professional Independence:
- The legal representation plan for a jurisdiction should be designed to guarantee the integrity of the relationship between lawyer and client. The plan and the lawyers serving under it should be free from political influence and should be subject to judicial supervision only in the same manner and to the same extent as are lawyers in private practice. The selection of lawyers for specific cases should not normally be made by the judiciary or elected officials, but should be arranged for by the administrators of the defender and assigned-counsel programs. An effective means of securing professional independence for defenders is to place responsibility for the governance of the organization in a board of trustees. Assigned-counsel components of the legal representation system should be governed by such a board. Boards of trustees should have the power to establish general policy for the operation of the defender and assigned-counsel programs consistent with these standards and in keeping with the standards of professional conduct. Boards of trustees should be precluded from interfering in the conduct of particular cases. A majority of the trustees on boards should be members of the bar admitted to practice in the jurisdiction.
American Bar Association, Standards, 5-5.3, Removal:
- Representation of an accused establishes an inviolable attorney-client relationship. Removal of counsel from representation of an accused therefore should not occur over the objection of the attorney and the client.
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelines for Negotiating and Awarding Indigent Defense Contracts, 1984, Guideline III-5, Definition of "Good Cause:"
- The Contract shall define "good cause" such as is required for removal of the Contractor (Guideline III-4) as: failure by the Contractor to comply with the terms of the contract to an extent that the delivery of services to clients by the Contractor is impaired or rendered impossible, or a willful disregard by the Contractor of the rights and bests interests of clients under this contract such as leaves them impaired. The individual actions of the Contractor or any one attorney taken in connection with one case alone, shall not necessarily constitute "good cause" for removal.
National Study Commission on Defense Services, 1976, Guidelines for Legal Defense Systems in the United States, 1976, 2.12, Qualifications of the Defender Director and Conditions of Employment:
- The Defender Director should be a member of the bar of the state in which he is to serve. He should be selected on the basis of a non-partisan, merit procedure which ensures the selection of a person with the best available administrative and legal talent, regardless of political party affiliation, contributions, or other irrelevant criteria.
The Defender Director's term of office should be from four to six years in duration and should be subject to renewal. The director should not be removed from office in the course of a term without a hearing procedure at which good cause is shown.
National Study Commission on Defense Services, Guidelines, 2.1-4:
- The assigned counsel administrator should not be subject to removal from office in the course of a term without good cause being shown and should be afforded a hearing before the governing body.
Commentary:
- Adequate defense services can be provided only by an independent attorney who is free to defend his client without threat to his position because of popular or political pressures.
National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Task Force on Courts, 1973, Standard 13.8:
- A public defender should be subject to disciplinary or removal procedures for permanent physical or mental disability seriously interfering with the performance of his duties, willful misconduct in office, willful and persistent failure to perform public defender duties, habitual intemperance, or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. Power to discipline a public defender should be placed in the judicial conduct commission provided in Standard 7.4.
Disciplinary Counsel - WSBA
