Twenty-four of California’s 58 counties do not have their own public defender – these counties rely on contracts with private attorneys to represent people accused of crimes.
These contracts give attorneys a predetermined flat fee to handle a proportion of the county’s cases, regardless of the time spent per case, while also allowing the attorney to take on paid clients of their own. Further, most of these contracts fail to provide adequate funding for essential components of any defense such as investigators, expert witnesses, and forensic analysts. This results in a system that incentivizes attorneys to spend as little time as possible on each case, freeing up time for their private caseloads.
Flat-fee contracts lead to worse outcomes at every stage of a criminal defense – attorneys spend little to no time interacting directly with their client, do not investigate the facts of the case, file fewer legal motions to vindicate their client’s rights, and have a lower likelihood of obtaining pre-trial release for their client. They are also more likely to have their client convicted and have a higher chance of landing their client a longer sentence.
For example, one attorney boasted that he, “pled 70% of his clients guilty at the first court appearance after spending 30 seconds” on the case. Eight of the 10 counties with the highest incarceration rates in the state have flat-fee contracted public defenders, including all of the top five. This degradation of the right to a defense disproportionately harms over-policed communities and leaves many at risk of false convictions or longer sentences.
Beyond the deterioration of a constitutional right, this flawed system also has an impact on crime victims who lose their ability to have their cases efficiently resolved as poor lawyering leads to judges reversing convictions and re-opening cases years later. At the same time, entire communities are destroyed by the needless incarceration of loved ones.
AB 690 will protect all Californians by:
- Eliminating the use of flat-fee public defense contracts
- Requiring any public defense contract systems to comply with the Office of the State Public Defender’s standards
- Mandating that public defense contracts account for essential components of defense, including investigators, experts, and social workers.
Due to the inherent issues with the system, the State Bar of California called for the abolition of flat-fee public defense contracts 35 years ago. AB 690 finally answers that call.
Primary Bill Author:
Assemblymember Nick Schultz
Bill sponsor:
Silicon Valley De-Bug