Texas Trends Regarding Decreasing Number of Lawyers Taking Appointments Paid by a Voucher

• In Event: Data in Indigent Defense: Echoes of Austerity: The Shrinking Pool of Private Attorneys

Abstract

The list of Texas defense attorneys on the indigent misdemeanor and/or felony appointment roster has decreased over the last decade. The reduction is more acute in areas that are: rural, have low reimbursement rates, and, relatedly, low per capita expenditures. As a result, there is an increase in the number and proportion of lawyers in the state who are over workloads as calculated by Texas Indigent Defense Commission & Texas A&M Public Policy Research Institute in 2015. Locations have attempted programmatic approaches to attract young lawyers to sign up for the appointment list. Colorado has recently undertaken one for Alternative Defense Counsel and it seems to replicate a successful in theory but not practice program from South Dakota (modest increase in lawyers, but no change in rural/urban split). Potter County, Texas attempted a similar program. The young recruits were quickly hired by the local Public Defender Office. A pragmatic, but politically non-viable, solution is a statewide public defender office, which would close financial gaps, drastically reduce duplicative managerial positions thus freeing up experienced lawyers to represent clients with high felony offenses in the courtroom and create an institutional counterweight not beholden to the judiciary for appointments that could impact the flow of filed cases in the criminal justice system.

Authors

• Jim Bethke, Bexar County MAC

• Jessy Tyler, Harris County County Public Defenders Office

• Micaela Sudolcan, Bexar County MAC