2000 Annual Report #5

• The Lancaster County Public Defender's Office;
• Contracts with private law firms for the child support/paternity cases and juvenile court cases and a contract with Nebraska Legal Services (NLS) for juvenile court representation;
• An ad hoc system of assigned counsel (in Juvenile, County and District Court) where judges appoint private attorneys who are then paid on an hourly basis.

Lancaster County has budgeted a total of $3,101,743 for indigent defense in FY01 and the total number of new cases (of all types) assigned to the system in 2000 was 7,137. The pie charts below show the percentage of the FY01 expenditures allocated to each type of system and the percentage of the total new cases assigned to the system in 2000:

The following pie chart shows the FY01 budgeted amounts by the type of case (felony, juvenile, misdemeanor, all other). The public defender budget has been allocated according to the number of attorneys assigned to the various divisions within the office:

At the beginning of the year 2000, Lancaster County had 5 total contracts - 4 with private law firms and 1 with Nebraska Legal Services. The firm of Ugai and Lindgren held the contract for Child Support and Paternity cases. They were paid $67,200 for the year and were appointed to represent 360 new child support cases and 65 new paternity cases during that time. In December of 2000, Lancaster County assigned the contract to Susan Ugai, Attorney at Law, because Sharon Lindgren had left the firm.

All of the remaining contracts are for representation in the Separate Juvenile Court of Lancaster County. Nebraska Legal Services has a contract which requires them to represent individuals in abuse/neglect, law violation, and status cases. NLS was contracted to receive $240,500 as compensation during 2000 and they were appointed in 116 new Abuse/Neglect cases, 154 Law Violation cases, and 23 Status Offense cases. The three private firm contractors at the beginning of 2000 were (1) Orton, Thomas and Peterson, (2) Bollerup and Huxoll, and (3) Anderson, Creager, and Wittstruck. In November of 2000, a 4th contract was entered into, upon the recommendation of the Indigent Defense Advisory Committee, with the law firm of (4) Recknor and Associates. Combined, these 4 contractors were paid $159,100 and were appointed in 157 new Abuse/Neglect cases and 35 new Law Violation cases.

In the ad hoc assigned counsel system, the courts pay an hourly rate of $65 for both in court and out of court work. In some of the homicide cases, the rate is $85 per hour. In calendar year 2000, the Separate Juvenile Court paid approximately $389,209 to assigned counsel in approximately 200 Abuse/Neglect cases and approximately 50 Law Violation cases and 30 Status cases which had been filed in previous years.

Of the felony cases assigned to the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office in 2000, 211 cases required appointment of other counsel because of a conflict of interest. In 42 of those cases (20%), the courts appointed the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy (NCPA) and in 169 cases (80%), the courts appointed private attorneys. 154 felony cases were closed by assigned counsel in 2000 (including NCPA) for total fees of $134,471. 1 Capital Appeal was closed for a total fee of $137,234.

Of the misdemeanor cases assigned to the Lancaster County Public Defender's Office in 2000, 337 cases required appointment of other counsel because of conflicts of interest. Assigned counsel closed 239 misdemeanor cases in 2000 for fees totaling $72,293.

As noted above, the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy (NCPA) was appointed to 42 felony cases in Lancaster County in 2000. This state agency will represent individuals in First Degree Murder cases when the Public Defender's Office has a conflict of interest. Lancaster County is billed only one third of the Commission's actual cost in such cases. In Drug and Violent crime felonies, the agency represents individuals when the Public Defender has a conflict at no cost to the county. Based upon our history of assigned counsel expenditures, these 42 cases, including 2 cases involving charges of First Degree Murder, represent a savings in assigned counsel fees of approximately $100,000 to Lancaster County.