Standard:

Contracts for public defense services should include the administrative costs associated with providing legal representation. These costs may include travel, telephones, law library, financial accounting, case management systems, the reporting requirements imposed by these standards, and other costs necessarily incurred in the day to day management of the contract.

Related Standards:

American Bar Association, Standards for Criminal Justice, Providing Defense Services.

National Study Commission on Defense Services, Guidelines for Legal Defense Systems in the United States, (1976), Guideline 3.4.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Standards for Defender Services, 1976 I-3, IV 2a-e, IV 5.

Commentary:

The amount of compensation paid to public defense or contract attorneys must not only cover the amount of time the attorney devotes to a case, but also those expenses necessary to support the attorney's public defense practice. The prosecutors and courts, as branches of local government, have operating budgets which permit the efficient organization and delivery of their legal services. The defense should have facilities, equipment and resources no less than those provided to prosecuting attorneys and judges.

Including these funds in the contracting agreement helps to assure that administrative and business management functions will be performed effectively and on a timely basis. Conversely, the failure to provide these essential funds could lead to poor administrative practices and erratic case management.

The NLADA Standards note that the state "has the responsibility to insure adequate funding of defender offices and appointed counsel programs."