Public Defense

NLADA will provide technical assistance to the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) on its Conflict System Improvement Initiative. Under the Smart Defense Initiative, DPS will collect data about the quality of representation provided by the private attorneys who are assigned to cases in which DPA cannot ethically provide representation. DPA will use this information to develop training resources and oversight mechanisms for conflict counsel.

ABA Ten Principles focus:
#8 – Resource Parity
#10 – Standards & Supervision

We are supporting the Wisconsin Reporting, Analysis, and Mining Project (RAMP). RAMP will integrate the State Public Defender’s individual case data with the aggregate case data of the Wisconsin Court System to more accurately measure the quality of indigent defense in Wisconsin, especially for clients represented by private assigned counsel. As part of RAMP, SPD will conduct analyses of these data to better inform both its internal decision-making and external policy choices by the legislature and public.

NACDL will present a program titled "Taking the Fear out of Forensics" for indigent defenders in Mississippi. The seminar will take place on March 17-18, 2015 at the University of Mississippi School of Law in Oxford, MS.

Founded in 1911, NLADA is America’s oldest and largest nonprofit association devoted
to excellence in the delivery of legal services to those who cannot afford counsel. NLADA has a
long history of providing technical assistance, including seminal systems evaluations,
training, and toolkits to promote excellence in state and local public defense delivery systems.
NLADA team devoted to this project bring extensive technical assistance and evaluation
experience, as well as a wealth of field experience in public defense delivery. NLADA is a

Successful TTA applicants (public defender offices chosen through a highly selective application process) receive twelve months of intensive, hands-on assistance focusing on those particular aspects of holistic defense identified by the recipient office. Integrating holistic defense into any public defender office is a transformative process and one that often happens incrementally. As such, we expect applicant offices to focus their requests for assistance either on a specific area or on those areas needing the most support and with the greatest potential for change.

In July of 2013, two public acts were signed into law by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. These acts established the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) and charged that commission with creating and enforcing uniform public defense standards throughout the state of Michigan.