La. legal aid cost estimated at $55 million

By MARK BALLARD
mballard@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
October 8, 2004

Otherwise, more lawsuits could be filed, said Barry Scheck, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The group recruited two Washington, D.C., law firms to file suit on Sept. 23, claiming Louisiana's public defender system is so underfunded and so structurally defective that it is unconstitutional even when it works properly.

In response to a question by state Sen. John Hainkel, R-New Orleans -- "How much do you want?" -- Scheck said his organization had estimated Louisiana should fund a public defender system to the tune of $55 million.

The state spends $9.5 million.

Scheck's comments were the first time since the Louisiana Task Force on Indigent Defense began meeting in May that reform proponents put an amount for fixing a system they claim in irreparably broken.

The task force was established by the legislature to study the indigent defense system and recommend changes.

"It's the first time we have had a hard dollar amount," said state Sen. Lydia P. Jackson, D-Shreveport, who chairs the task force that is composed of legislators, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and law professors.

"This is a ballpark figure until we have sufficiently good data on caseloads, but I think this is a good working number. This is about what it's going to cost," Jackson said in an interview after the hearing.

Jackson said the task force would start looking for revenue sources to fund a system costing that amount. "Clearly, we're going to have to identify some revenue sources," Jackson said after the hearing.

The $55 million estimate was calculated by David Carroll of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in Washington, D.C.

Carroll's studies in March catalogued problems in the way the state fulfilled its constitutional mandate to provide lawyers for people who are arrested and cannot afford one.

Carroll said the $55 million figure was calculated from the numbers of cases and other items factored into a formula with the national averages on public defender office staffing, support and infrastructure estimates.

"I've been trying not to go on record with my best estimates. But when you're asked directly by senator, you have to respond," Carroll said. "What I'm trying to say is it'll be about $55 million, not $20 million, not $70 million."

Louisiana appropriated $9.5 million for representing indigent defendants in the fiscal year that began July 1.

However, in Louisiana, much of the budget for representing indigent defendants comes from revenues sources on the parish level, such as court filing fees and traffic tickets.

Combined statewide, state and local government agencies spend about $32 million per year. Alabama, the only other state in the nation that funds its indigent defense system in a similar way, spent $37.7 million in 2003.

The Legislature in Oregon, which has a similar population as Louisiana, appropriates $70 million annually to fund that state's indigent defense system.

Scheck said he would like to see the funding mechanisms change from primarily a local system to a more-stable state sources.

Scheck said he hoped the Legislature would fix and adequately fund the system.