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The Informer Reader (Blog): Legal Reform Marks Bright Spot in Katrina Recovery
September 14, 2007
The Wall Street Journal Online
By Wendy Pollack
While much of Louisiana’s already-stretched public services have floundered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, one area has undergone a surprising renaissance: the state’s public-defender system.
Louisiana’s public-defender system, long considered one of the worst in the U.S., deteriorated after the storm. People were sometimes kept in prison for months without seeing a lawyer. But today, the system has been transformed through a series of major reforms. Experts in indigent defense told National Public Radio’s Ari Shapiro that the new structure could serve as a standard for other states.
New Orleans used to fund its public defender’s office with revenue from traffic tickets. Once the city flooded in the aftermath of the storm, police stopped writing tickets, and the public defender’s office had to lay off nearly all of its lawyers. Meanwhile, the office lost track of where prisoners were in the judicial system.
The deeper crisis brought about by the storm prodded officials to look at making changes. One major shift was to start assigning defense attorneys to clients, instead of to courtrooms, with the goal of having the same lawyer represent a defendant throughout the trial process. Meanwhile, other sources of funding were established. While traffic tickets still play a role, a separate state fund has ensured a steadier revenue flow.
“They recognized they had a problem, they addressed it, they fixed it and that’s something I just think is great,” said David Carroll of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, who has worked with Louisiana for the last four years. Mr. Carroll told NPR that although Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the U.S., it now meets 10 out of 10 criteria for indigent defense established by the American Bar Association. |
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
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