Vol. 36, Number 8—August 2004

Representations On Rise

Representations of indigent clients increased 76 percent between 1993 and 2003, with the number of representations by federal defender organizations increasing 110 percent. During the same time, federal defenders offices increased in number from 49 to 73.

The Criminal Justice Act provides funding for the representation of individuals with limited financial resources in federal criminal proceedings, from initial appearance through appeal and post-conviction matters. Each district court, with the approval of its circuit judicial council, is required to have a plan for furnishing such representation. Appointed counsel are private panel attorneys and, in most districts, either a federal public or community defender.

For district-by-district statistics on federal defender representations, see Table K-1 in the report, Judicial Business of the U.S. Courts on line at http://www.uscourts.gov/judbususc/judbus.html.