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Executive Summary | National Contact List | Management Resources | Committees | Meetings

Highlights

Join the ACCD 

ACCD Ethics Opinion 03-01 on caseload limits

Join the ACCD

The American Council of Chief Defenders is a national community of public defense leaders dedicated to securing a fair justice system and ensuring high quality legal representation for people facing loss of life, freedom or family.

ACCD Misson

The Mission of the American Council of Chief Defenders is to provide tools, strategies, mutual support, training and information to chief defenders; to speak as a national voice for public defense; to promote best practices in the leadership, management, and administration of justice; and to support development and reform of public defense systems.

Membership

ACCD members must belong to NLADA in order to be a member of the Section. ACCD Section membership is open to all chiefs and deputy chiefs (i.e., first two in command hierarchy regardless of title) of all types of indigent defense systems in the United States and its territories, including the heads of county or judicial district offices within state systems. Prosecutors and Bench Officers are not eligible for membership.
There are five ACCD Committees:

For additional information about member benefits and services, go to the NLADA Member Services area of the Web site.



ACCD Letters to Attorney General Holder

Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (pdf, 256 Kb) request to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder to advance the conversation with the Department of Justice to assist ACCD on improving the delivery of public defense services in states and localities throughout the country, January 26, 2012.

Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (pdf, 123 Kb) following-up to ACCD's initial letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and recommends additional priorities for Department of Justice, March 1, 2011.

Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (pdf, 167 Kb) emphasizing indigent defense priorities for Department of Justice, January 15, 2010.

ACCD Promotes Pretrial Release Improvements

ACCD Policy Statement on Fair and Effective Pretrial Justice Practices

Free Pretrial Release training available Lindsey Carlson, General Counsel, Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) did a one hour ACCD webinar on March 16, 2011. She reviewed the national standards and policies on pretrial release and how public defenders can lead their offices and courts into compliance with these standards. The webinar was recorded and is available free for viewing on the Go to Webinar website at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/489242120.

Assigned Counsel Preliminary Report

Implementation of the ABA's Ten Principles in Assigned-Counsel Systems Preliminary Report

ACCD Ethics Opinion

Download a PDF version of the American Council of Chief Defenders Ethics Opinion 03-01 on workloads

(2003).

Law Student Loan Forgiveness

Please visit our Federal Legislation page for more information about Loan Forgiveness page

Caseloads and Workloads

ACCD Statement On Caseloads and Workloads (pdf, 107 Kb)

Letter to the Chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense by ACCD Chair Fern Laethem on the ACCD Caseload Report and Resolution (pdf, 31 Kb)
**The letter was also sent to Presidents of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.

Miami-Dade Public Defender Pleadings to Fight Excessive Caseloads

ACCD support of Public Defender Fight for Reasonable Caseloads in Miami-Dade, Florida (pdf, 251 Kb)

Resolutions

ACCD Resolution in Support of Public Defender Fight for Reasonable Caseloads in Luzerne County Pennsylvania: January 13, 2012

ACCD Resolution in Support of Public Defender Fight for Reasonable Caseloads in Cook County Illinois: February 11, 2011 (pdf, 69 Kb)

ACCD Resolution in Support of Public Defender Fight for Reasonable Caseloads in the Commonwealth of Kentucky: July 22, 2008 (pdf, 238 Kb)

ACCD Cover letter and Resolution in Support of Public Defender Independence and Reasonable Caseloads in Cook County, IL: May 2, 2008 (pdf, 273 Kb)

ACCD Resolution in Support of Brian Jones, Public Defender Portage County Ohio: August 25, 2007 (pdf, 12 Kb)

Past Conference Materials

"Public Defense: Leading the Way to Racial Justice": Video, written summaries, and conference material downloads from the ACCD’s summer conference are now available on-line!

Propsed Adam Walsh Act Guidelines:Sex Offender Registration and Notification ACT (SORNA) Guidelines. These guidelines explicate the Adam Walsh Act's sex offender registration and notification provisions.

Press Releases

Press Reslease Publicizing ACCD’s Resolution Protesting Unreasonably High Caseloads Facing Kentucky Public Defenders (pdf, 28 Kb)

Free Online Training: Eyewitness Identification

Through NLADA's partnership with the Practising Law Institute (PLI), NLADA has taken the first step towards making training to the defender community available online.

Get Acrobat Reader Documents linked from this page are in the PDF format and require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view or print them. Click to download the Acrobat Reader software.
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