Texas Task Force for Indigent Defense: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/tfid

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The cost of providing lawyers for poor defendants in Harris County has
risen about 80 % since the legislature set new criminal defense standards
in 2001.

The Fair Defense Act, which took effect Jan. 1, 2002, required counties
with court-appointed lawyers to adequately compensate them. Since then,
far more local defendants have received court-appointed lawyers, and these
lawyers have been paid more per case.

For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, indigent defense costs in local felony,
misdemeanor and juvenile courts neared $20 million, compared with $11
million 3 years ago.

In Dallas County, these costs rose only 12 % during the same period and
are now near $18 million. But dollars don't tell the whole story.

The number of indigent cases in Dallas is falling, but in Harris County it
has shot up 75 percent in the past two years, from 42,667 to 74,879. The
number of defendants who are indigent rose from 38 % to 61 %.

Troy McKinney, who was president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers
Association when the act was implemented, said one reason for the latter
increase is that judges are setting higher bonds, causing people to remain
in jail longer.

"Five years ago a 1st-degree felony might have a $20,000 bond," McKinney
said. "Today, it may have a bond of $50,000. So the odds of remaining in
custody are greater." Defendants in jail "get an appointed lawyer almost
automatically."

"I think there are clearly some people who would not have gotten a
court-appointed lawyer before and are getting one now," McKinney said.
"The county is supposed to have guidelines as to who is indigent and who
isn't, but that is pretty much up to ... each judge."

The increasing share of indigents in local courts is mirrored across
Texas, rising from about 30 percent in 2001, before the act took effect,
to nearly 40 percent in 2002 and nearing 50 % in 2004, said Bill Mesaros
of the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.

The Legislature created the task force to help counties meet the demands
of the new law and compile data on compliance.

State District Judge George Godwin, who was presiding judge of felony
courts in Harris County when they were preparing to cope with the act,
said the measures adopted included a new fee schedule that gave appointed
lawyers their first pay raise in a decade or more.

"We expected at least a 30 % increase in the amount spent in attorney fees
when the act became effective," Godwin said. "And we saw that immediately.

"They are being compensated a great deal more than they used to be," he
said. "You pay the trial lawyer a good chunk and the appellate lawyer a
good chunk and then there is a writ in capital cases."

The $20 million figure includes felony, misdemeanor and juvenile courts,
but felonies are the big ticket. Indigent defense costs in misdemeanor
courts were $2.5 million of the total in fiscal year 2004, said court
administrator Bob Wessels, and juvenile courts ran far less.

The costs may be leveling out, though. The big leap came early, when the
price tag rose from $11 million in 2001 to $16 million in 2002. It was $19
million in 2003 and $20 million in 2004.

But these numbers also suggest that the available dollars are being
stretched thin. As the number of indigent cases has risen since 2002,
per-case expenditure slipped from $378 to $263.

To improve the quality of indigent defense, McKinney suggests a tax-funded
public defender's office like the one in Dallas County. The idea garners
little support among judges and defense lawyers.

A recent article in Texas Lawyer quotes Jeanette Green, the Dallas County
chief public defender, as saying, "We're about half the cost of a
court-appointed attorney."

But Godwin is skeptical about creating another county office with
basically the same infrastructure and staff as the district attorney,
albeit on a smaller scale (not all defendants are indigent).

"Both systems have drawbacks," he said. "You're getting that done in
Harris County without all those fringes and physical costs."

While dollars can't measure the quality of indigent defense, task force
statistics indicate Dallas County spends slightly more per case than
Harris - $265 to $263.

"If a (nonappointed) lawyer in private practice took a case at $263, every
other lawyer in town would laugh at him and consider him incompetent,"
McKinney said. A fair rate for a noncapital felony, he said, is $2,000 to
$3,000 for a day's work.

(source: Houston Chronicle)