BUTTE — There are big changes in Montana's public defender system coming on Monday. However, those involved in creating the changes celebrated that accomplishment on Thursday as they expect to be too busy for any hoopla next week.

"It will be a new day on Monday in the world of the tradition of service to indigent defendants," said Randi Hood, who heads the new office. "I've waited a long time for this day."

It took a lawsuit to end Hood's wait. Four years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union declared Montana's public defender system violated a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that states must provide lawyers for low-income people accused of crimes.

The ACLU agreed to put the suit on hold if the Legislature came up with a new system to replace what national ACLU senior staff attorney Vince Warren termed "56 separate public defender programs."

The system didn't have enough money, resulting in an over-reliance on plea bargains and complaints that some people accused of crimes waited days or weeks before meeting their attorneys, the suit said.

Additionally, under the old system, some counties had full-time public defenders and others contracted out to private attorneys.

"I can tell you horror stories all day long that you would not believe," said Steve Nardi of Kalispell, who was a Flathead County public defender for 22 years. He is vice chairman of the Public Defender Commission created to oversee the new system.

"That will never happen again," he added.

Nardi and Hood spoke Thursday at a meeting of the legislative panel that deals with the new office. The office's Butte headquarters was packed with members of the panel, the Public Defender Commission, lawmakers and others who traveled there to mark the occasion.

"Our system doesn't work unless there's fair play. Our system doesn't work unless the last and the least get the same opportunities as the ones in first place," said Gov. Brian Schweitzer at a news conference.

The new system, which goes into effect Monday and was approved last year by the Legislature, shifts responsibility for public defenders from the counties to the state, and imposes uniform standards.

The system creates 11 regional public defender offices around the state — including maintaining the Great Falls office — but continues to allow sparsely populated counties to contract with private attorneys. Now, however, those attorneys will be appointed by the regional public defenders and not judges.

The contract attorneys, like the full-time public defenders, will be required to meet a 115-page set of professional standards drawn up by the new office. They will also have to attend training sessions that include segments on Indian issues.

Commission Chairman James Park Taylor said the goal is to cater to those who have been under-served, "especially the Indian communities who have not gotten a fair shake."

"We hope to change that," said Taylor, who is the former managing attorney of the Tribal Defenders Office for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Taylor said that he and the five other criminal defense attorneys on the commission will donate their $50 per meeting stipends to the University of Montana Law School for a scholarship fund set aside for an Indian student interested in becoming a public defender.

The new system also includes 11 investigators to help attorneys with their cases. One of the complaints leveled at the old system was that public defenders had to do their own background work while prosecutors could rely on the investigative work of police and detectives.

But it was the old contract system that drew the most wrath on Thursday.

Under that system, "a rank-and-file public defender working in a country public defender office might get a salary to do 150 cases a year, while a court-appointed attorney might get as much as $20,000 extra (beyond that salary) for a single case" said state Rep. John Parker, D-Great falls.

Parker is the chair of the Interim Law and Justice Committee.

There's no way to accurately calculate the total cost of the old system because of its disparities. Still, it's estimated that the $27 million budgeted for the new system in 2007 and 2008 may not be enough. It's estimated that the Public Defender's Office will need $41 million in 2009 and 2010.

State Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, who co-sponsored the legislation creating the new system, said he hopes that standardizing the system actually could result in lower costs.