Update financial standards for getting a public defender

From the LaCrosse Tribune (WI):

One of the hallmarks of the American justice system is that people are entitled to legal representation in criminal court regardless of income or financial means.

But that’s not always the case in Wisconsin. Let’s consider a couple of hypothetical examples offered by the Wisconsin Public Defender’s Office.

Let’s say you earn $58.90 a week and you’ve been charged with a misdemeanor that could involve jail time. Your income level puts you at 30 percent of the federal poverty level for a single individual. You have $300 in cash and a $2,000 car. Do you qualify for a public defender in Wisconsin?

Nope. You make too much money.

OK, here’s another example. You have two children and you earn $260 a week working at a minimum wage job. You’ve just been charged with either a misdemeanor or a felony.

Your income puts you at 79 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of three, and you have $300 in cash and a $2,000 car. Sorry, you’re too well off, under the current guidelines.

What’s going on? Our eligibility standards for public defender representation have not been changed since 1987, even though the cost of just about everything has gone up since then.

Lots of states have more up-to-date eligibility standards, including Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Colorado. But even Louisiana and Arkansas have more up-to-date standards than Wisconsin.

In case you’re thinking that it’s about time we stopped coddling indigent defendants by providing free legal counsel, guess again. Judges know that cases could be overturned on appeal if the defendant doesn’t have legal representation. So, if they think a defendant can’t afford to hire a lawyer, the judge will appoint a local lawyer to represent the defendant — and the money will come out of the local property tax.

Appointed lawyers tend to cost more than public defenders, so the system we have is more expensive than if we adequately funded the public defender system.

Besides, people are entitled to legal defense even if they can’t afford it. So we need to update those old 1987 income guidelines.

Read the entire article