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Lawsuit Challenges Legal Counsel for Poor
September 22, 2004
Reported by The Associated Press
A class-action lawsuit claims that the Calcasieu Parish indigent defender program is so underfunded that it effectively denies low-income people facing criminal trials their constitutional right to adequate legal counsel.
The lawsuit names nine plaintiffs but seeks class-action status on behalf of "all adults who are or will be" entitled to appointed counsel in criminal cases in Calcasieu Parish.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is backing the lawsuit. Louisiana's system for naming counsel for indigents has been under fire for years because of underfunded and overloaded public defenders who say they can't give proper representation to their clients, especially those in capital murder cases.
The lawsuit was filed in state district court in Lake Charles and assigned to Judge Wilford Carter.
The suit alleges that criminal suspects who are too poor to hire their own lawyers must rely on a public defender's office without the resources to properly investigate their cases.
The Legislature and the governor are named as defendants. A spokeswoman for Governor Kathleen Blanco said the governor's office had not seen the lawsuit and would have no immediate comment. |