NCJ Number
92222
Date Published
1981
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the distributional impact of an expanded public defender system in British Columbia found that small criminal legal aid offices could be established in 10 communities without having any substantial adverse economic impact on the practices of most lawyers in these communities.
Abstract
This analysis was based on the workloads, case flows, and numbers of attorneys and support staff in the pilot Burnaby Criminal Defense Office. Eleven regions of the Province could sustain public defender offices, with the impact on the private bar in these regions being minimal, particularly if public defense lawyers were drawn from members of the current legal aid bar who handle a high volume of criminal legal aid cases. If a large public defense office were opened in Vancouver, the broad impact on the criminal legal aid bar would be considerable, but a smaller office of 10 lawyers would have little impact, especially if the highest-volume criminal legal aid lawyers formed a pool from which public defenders were hired. Under such a system, the loss to individual members of the criminal legal aid bar in Vancouver would average less than $800. If the office were staffed by the 10 highest-volume lawyers, the number of cases lost to the legal aid bar would average less than one a year. Tabular data are provided. For other reports from the evaluation of the pilot public defender system, see NCJ 92216-17 and 92221-22.