Assigned Counsel vs Public Defender Systems in Virginia - A Comparison of Relative Benefits

Study results present a mixed and ambiguous portrait of the public defender system used experimentally in four Virginia jurisdictions, a conclusion consistent with the literature on indigent representation. Some additional observations can be made from the Virginia experience. In one assigned counsel jurisdiction, there was a consensus among professionals that the public defender system is better than the assigned counsel system, but they believed that in their particular community, a public defender system, for all its benefits, could not serve the clients, society, or the legal profession as well as the assigned counsel system. Further, there is resistance to the expansion of the public defender system in Virginia among lawyers, primarily because of the income loss private attorneys would suffer due to decreased assigned counsel fees. This resistance has been instrumental in preventing the passage of a bill to expand the public defender system statewide. Thirteen bibliographic listings are provided.