Trial judges' perceptions of North Carolina's Office of Indigent Defense Services : a report on survey results - Page 1 |
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© 2016 UNC Chapel Hill School of Government. 1 REPORT Trial Judges’ Perceptions of North Carolina’s Office of Indigent Defense Services: A Report on Survey Results March 2016 Findings at a Glance The UNC School of Government created an online survey and distributed it to Superior Court and District Court judges on behalf of the North Caro-lina Office of Indigent Defense Services, a state agency that provides legal services to criminal defendants, certain civil respondents, and juveniles in delinquency proceedings who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Based on the responses of 135 judges, we found that judges had a generally positive view of the agency’s performance with respect to its overall administration of indigent defense, the timeliness and responsiveness of its office staff, and its provision of constitutionally effective representation, among other topics. Judges’ narrative responses included praise for the agency but also raised concerns about the appointment process for private assigned counsel, who supplement public defenders in some districts and are the primary providers of indigent defense in others; administration, management, and supervision of both public defenders and private assigned counsel; and indigent defend-ers’ performance due to inexperience, unavailability, and excessive work-load. Recognizing that hourly rates paid to private assigned counsel were reduced in 2011, 80 of 119 judges responding to a question about those rates associated their reduction with impacts on the quality of indigent represen-tation; 59 of 66 who answered a follow-up question indicated that the quality of representation had suffered, primarily due to fewer experienced attor-neys being willing to take indigent cases. There is also some indication that judges who have experience with contract counsel are less satisfied and are more satisfied in District Court districts that house Public Defender offices. David Brown, MPP Monica Yelverton, MPA
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Title | Trial judges' perceptions of North Carolina's Office of Indigent Defense Services : a report on survey results - Page 1 |
Full Text | © 2016 UNC Chapel Hill School of Government. 1 REPORT Trial Judges’ Perceptions of North Carolina’s Office of Indigent Defense Services: A Report on Survey Results March 2016 Findings at a Glance The UNC School of Government created an online survey and distributed it to Superior Court and District Court judges on behalf of the North Caro-lina Office of Indigent Defense Services, a state agency that provides legal services to criminal defendants, certain civil respondents, and juveniles in delinquency proceedings who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Based on the responses of 135 judges, we found that judges had a generally positive view of the agency’s performance with respect to its overall administration of indigent defense, the timeliness and responsiveness of its office staff, and its provision of constitutionally effective representation, among other topics. Judges’ narrative responses included praise for the agency but also raised concerns about the appointment process for private assigned counsel, who supplement public defenders in some districts and are the primary providers of indigent defense in others; administration, management, and supervision of both public defenders and private assigned counsel; and indigent defend-ers’ performance due to inexperience, unavailability, and excessive work-load. Recognizing that hourly rates paid to private assigned counsel were reduced in 2011, 80 of 119 judges responding to a question about those rates associated their reduction with impacts on the quality of indigent represen-tation; 59 of 66 who answered a follow-up question indicated that the quality of representation had suffered, primarily due to fewer experienced attor-neys being willing to take indigent cases. There is also some indication that judges who have experience with contract counsel are less satisfied and are more satisfied in District Court districts that house Public Defender offices. David Brown, MPP Monica Yelverton, MPA |