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Standard Ten: Supervision
- National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Task Force on Courts, 1973, Standard 13.9:
- The most important function of supervisors is ensuring effective representation. Defender offices are not confederations of individual attorneys but are institutions that provide defense services as an organization through individual attorneys. Many new defenders lack experience in criminal law and procedures. Supervision should be, in part, a training experience in criminal law and procedures.
Supervision should be, in part, a training experience for the younger lawyers. The mere granting of a law degree and admission to the bar does not automatically qualify a lawyer to represent clients in criminal matters. N.L.A.D.A., Guidelines for Legal Defense Systems in the United States, 337-40, 1976. - Supervisors should also:
- Evaluate the performance of staff attorneys in order to make recommendations regarding promotions or termination.
- Help coordinate services and ensure that office policies are understood and followed.
- The ratio of one supervisor for every ten lawyers was recommended by the N.L.A.D.A.
- In order that supervisors not become too far removed from actual trial work, they should serve on a rotating basis.
- Supervisors should not carry caseloads so that they may devote all of their time and energy to supervision. If supervising attorneys are permitted to have cases of their own professional ethics would demand that such cases take priority over the attorney's supervisory responsibilities. Where a lawyer supervises fewer than ten lawyers, however, it may be appropriate for the supervisor to be responsible for a limited number of cases, such number to be determined on a proportional basis (i.e., lawyers who supervise five staff lawyers may devote 50% of their time to their own cases).
- Policy should be established for and supervision maintained over a defender office by the public defender. It should be the responsibility of the public defender to insure that the duties of the office are discharged with diligence and competence.
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelines for Negotiating and Awarding Indigent Legal Defense Contracts, 1983 Draft, Guideline III-14, Supervision and Evaluation:
- The contract should establish a procedure for systematic supervision and evaluation of the performance of the Contractor's professional staff based upon publicized criteria. Supervision and evaluation efforts should include monitoring of time and caseload records, review and inspection of transcripts, in-court observations, and periodic conferences.
A system of performance evaluations should be based upon personal monitoring by the Contractor's Director or Chief Attorney and should be augmented by regular, formalized comments by judges, prosecutors, other defense lawyers, and clients. The criteria of performance employed should be those of a skilled and knowledgeable criminal lawyer.
Seattle-King County Bar Association Indigent Defense Services Task Force, Guidelines for Accreditation of Defender Agencies, 1982, Guideline Number 4:
- Each agency should provide one full-time supervisor for every ten staff lawyers or one half-time supervisor for every five lawyers. Supervisors should be chosen from among those lawyers in the agency qualified under these guidelines to try Class A felonies. Supervisors should serve on a rotating basis, and except when supervising fewer than ten lawyers, should not carry caseloads.
P/T Paralegal - TDA
