Louisiana: Limited State Standards

In Louisiana, the judicial system is very fragmented and localized. The initial effort to improve indigent defense began in 1966, when the state legislature created district indigent defender boards to provide a uniform system for securing and compensating qualified counsel, resulting in 41 boards. However, no funding was provided until 1976.

A major problem in New Orleans is the source of the funding, which comes from traffic tickets, noted Tony Gagliana of the Louisiana Supreme Court. The amount of funding depends on collection efforts in each district, which is then dependent on the vagaries of law enforcement. For example, Gagliana noted, if a parish (the state s version of a county) forgot to order traffic tickets one month, funding for that period would be substantially reduced. Traffic citations vary seasonally, also affecting funding.

The Louisiana Indigent Defender Board, which was created in 1974 under the state supreme court, set three mandatory standards at its inception:

• The trial of capital cases would require two certified attorneys;
• Appeals cases would be handled only by certified attorneys; and
• Private attorneys working as full-time staff members on district boards could not practice criminal law in their respective districts, but could practice civil law only if it did not conflict with their duties.

Gagliana noted that standards are very limited by funding. He pointed out that the imposition of national caseload standards on the current system in Louisiana would require far more funding than the amount currently allocated. While Louisiana has the three standards originally embedded in the Supreme Court rule of 1974, other standards at this point are aspirational. Although the standards have been useful for setting the context for improvement of indigent defense, the only enforcement tool the state board has is to restrict or deny a parish funding for gross violations.

From Redefining Leadership for Equal Justice: Final Report of the National Symposium on Indigent Defense 2000 (Office of Justice Programs/Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, 2001), at 16-17. (pdf document)

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