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Providing Quality Defense Services |
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Providing Quality Defense Services |
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Other Links: Click An Item Below To View The Text
Assistance Available For Immigration Issues In Criminal Defense With the new, severe consequences of criminal convictions for those subject to the immigration laws, it is increasingly important for criminal defense attorneys to familiarize themselves with the ramifications of representing the criminal defendant. The "Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act" and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act", have dramatically increased the negative immigrant consequences in criminal cases. The New York State Defenders Association has a new Criminal Defense Immigration Project in place. They are currently preparing a criminal defense immigration manual. More importantly, the Project is offering backup support to public defense providers. You may make inquiries regarding these issues on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to noon and again from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., by calling Manuel D. Vargas, Director of the Criminal Defense Immigration Project, at (212) 998-6476. When you call, identify yourself as a Monroe County Assigned Counsel Program panel member. The Criminal Justice Section of The Monroe County Bar Association in cooperation with the Assigned Counsel Program is Sponsoring the first of several local CLE programs. The Section designed these seminars to give all panel members of the Assigned Counsel Program opportunities to complete the CLE requirements established by the Monroe County Bar Association for the Assigned Counsel Program. I urge as many of you as possible to avail yourself of these local programs. If you are unsure of your requirements for CLE under the Bar Sponsored Assigned Counsel Plan, please click on CLE Requirements in the Table of Contents to view the requirements. NYSBA Supports Increase in Assigned Counsel Rates The House of Delegates of the New York State Bar Association has approved a proposal for an increase in the assigned counsel rates. Read the full text of the NYSBA release.
Judge Marks Asks Assistance of Assigned Counsel in Appeals from Local Criminal Court The Hon. Patricia Marks, Supervising Judge for the Criminal Term Courts, indicates that a problem exists in some appeals to the County Court from the Local Criminal Courts. The problem exists in cases where assigned counsel files a notice of appeal on behalf of a client and instructs the client to file an application to proceed as a poor person. In some cases, the client neglects to file the application and the appeal is subsequently dismissed for failure to perfect in a timely manner. The client's appeal is not determined on the merits. Judge Marks indicates that it would assist County Court if the Assigned Counsel Program could notify both County Court and the Public Defender when assigned counsel files a notice of appeal from Local Criminal Court to County Court on behalf of an indigent defendant. Therefore, I am requesting that if assigned counsel files a notice of appeal in a misdemeanor case, counsel immediately send a copy of the notice of appeal to our office. Our office will notify County Court and the Public Defender of the filing of the notice of appeal. I would also point out that even though there is no obligation by rule or statute requiring counsel to file the application to appeal as poor person on behalf of the client, our office will pay counsel for the time expended in preparing the application and filing it on behalf of the client. Our office urges counsel to prepare the application on behalf of the client and submit the hours expended on the claim voucher for that case. NYSBA Ethics Opinion Regarding Assigned Counsel The New York State Bar Association has issued an opinion dealing with Assigned Counsel's duty regarding discovery that the client may have misrepresented his or her ability to retain counsel. Read the NYSBA opinion. If you are doing an appeal and face advancing a large sum for the voluminous copying required, please contact our office for instructions on having the cost of the copying billed directly to the Assigned Counsel Program. We recently established an account for this purpose and it can save you from having to wait for your reimbursement. The same would hold true for complicated trial level cases where the copying expense will be high due to the unusual nature of the case. NYSDA Holds Fact Finding Hearing In Rochester On October 20, 1998, the New York State Defenders Association and League of Women Voters Rochester Metro Area held an all day fact finding hearing on the issue of public defense services. Assigned Counsel panel members Deborah Indivino, Don Thompson, Phil Hurwitz, Gary Muldoon, Mike Tallon and Jim Hinman all testified on a variety of issues related to assigned counsel issues. All panel members owe them thanks for taking time to offer their testimony in support for raising the hourly rates paid assigned counsel. In addition, I filed written testimony in support of such a raise. Read the entire testimony. NLADA Performance Standards for Defense Counsel The National Legal Aid & Defender Association publishes an outline of recommended standards that defense counsel should follow in every stage of a criminal proceeding. The outline is an excellent checklist of issues defense counsel should consider in handling the defense of a criminal matter. The basic black letter standards are posted on their web site. Go to the NLADA web site to read the Defense Counsel Performance Standards. After viewing them, close the new window that opened to return to this site. The full 1997 volume of the standards edition, including extensive commentary, citations to related standards, and detailed footnotes can be obtained by contacting the NLADA. New Assigned Counsel Program CLE Requirements The Joint County/Bar Association Plan called for the Bar Association to establish mandatory CLE requirements for panel members. Since the adoption of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education now requires a minimum of 24 hours of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education for all attorneys (32 hours for newly admitted attorneys), the Assigned Counsel Program Continuing Legal Education requirements has also changed. The Assigned Counsel Program requirements have not changed substantively, but the administration has been changed to parallel that of the state-wide Mandatory Continuing Legal Education. The Assigned Counsel Program hours will now be acquired biennially. These amended requirements have been established and made a part of the Assigned Counsel Program regulations. The regulations are permanently posted here on the Web Site. Read the full CLE requirements here on our web site. To view a list of some upcoming seminars of possible interest go to the NYSDA web site or the NYSACDL web site. To view the state-wide Mandatory Continuing Education Requirements go to the NYSBA web site. These links open in a new browser window. After viewing the requirements, just close the new window to return to this page. MCBA Approves ACP Trial Mentor Program The Trustees of the Monroe County Bar Association adopted our proposal to establish a Trial Mentor Program which allows attorneys on lower panels an alternative means of gaining the requisite experience necessary for elevation to the higher ACP panels. Participation in the program substitutes for actual trial experiences and offers the younger, less experienced attorney the benefit of the guidance and experience of our more experienced trial counsel. The attorneys serving as associate counsel under the guidance of the mentor do not get paid for their participation, but do gain in experience and the benefit of qualifying for felony assignments. To view the new panel qualification requirements for the Trial Mentor Program, visit the minimum panel requirements page by clicking on that page in the table of content at the left. View details of the Trial Mentor Program. The WestLaw Terminal Available Starting May 4, 1999 Effective May 4, 1999, WestLaw is available for use by all current Assigned Counsel panel members with pending cases. Please familiarize yourself with the policies and procedures that follow. The terminal is located in our offices at Suite 2100 in CityPlace at the corner of West Main and North Fitzhugh. Please use the North Fitzhugh Street entrance only. You can gain admittance without going through security by showing your Hall of Justice ID card. Anyone available can log you on to WestLaw. You will be asked to supply an "identifier" for the WestLaw session. This identifier will be the ACP file number of the case or cases on which you will be working. We offer no training in WestLaw. If you are unfamiliar with the system, you can use the on-line documentation or any other source of training. To continue to provide this service, we have to make it economically feasible. Therefore, since WestLaw charges extra to print or download from their server in book style, you will be restricted to "cutting" and "pasting" your research from the screen to a file. You must bring a 3.5" floppy disk with you to store your research. We can show you how to "cut" and "paste" if you are unfamiliar with the process. Please bring any supplies you need for your research with you. To use WestLaw, you must reserve a specific time. To reserve time for WestLaw research, please call Barb at 428-4959 or Rick at 428-4858. You may also fax a request for time to 428-9023. If the time requested in the fax is not available, we will notify you. Please do not call Toni. You can reserve blocks of time up to three hours in length. The hours for research are from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. New Feature - "Gary Muldoon's Criminal Law Issues" Gary Muldoon, local practitioner, member of the Assigned Counsel panel in Monroe County and co-author of Handling a Criminal Case in New York (West Group 1999), has generously agreed to allow our web site to host his continuing series of articles about issues in criminal law. Gary, besides his book, has been a frequent contributor of articles on criminal law to the Daily Record and other popular and legal journals. He is also co-author of Criminal Law in New York, 4th Edition (West Group 1999). We are pleased to be able to host these informative articles and hope they are helpful to our panel members. Child Abuse/Neglect Seminar Handout The handout provided at the November 9, 1999 seminar "Special Evidentiary Problems in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases" is now available for download in Adobe Acrobat format. In order to view this format, you must have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. To get the free Adobe Acrobat reader, click on the Adobe logo below. After installing, return to this page and click the link at the top to read the report. After it is viewable on your screen, you can print it out using your browser's print capabilities. To download the report for later reading or printing, click the link at the top and save the file. [_include_pages/acrobat_reader_ip.htm]Judge Kaye Releases Report on Plan to Increase Assigned Counsel Rates Judge Kaye has released a report detailing the need to increase the Assigned Counsel rates. Pointing out that the fees have not been increased since 1986, that outside counsel for other government functions receive fees up to $325 per hour and that court appointed experts receive fees often up to $200 per hour, the report urges a raise in the hourly rates to $75 per hour in or out of court for felony and Family Court matters and $60 per hour for misdemeanor matters. The proposal would raise the statutory maximums to $5,000 for felonies, Family Court matters and all appeals, and to $2,500 for all other matters. The report states that funding for these increases should come from the mandatory surcharges imposed by the courts. This money now goes primarily to general government funding. Using this money would relieve the local governments from any financial impact of the increase. I urge all of you to contact your local state representatives and ask them to take immediate action on this proposal. You can read the entire report at the New York Unified Court System website at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/18b.html. This site will open in a new browser window. After reading the report, close the browser window to return to this site. Legislature Passes and Governor Signs Anti-Terrorism Legislation In response to the attack on the World Trade Center, the Assembly and Senate of New York State passed a series of bills amending the Penal Law and Criminal Procedure Law. The Governor signed these laws and they took effect immediately. Click here to download a PDF outline of the new legislation. [_include_pages/acrobat_reader_ip.htm]Use of Unlicensed Investigators It has come to the attention of Monroe County that some attorneys requesting investigative services pursuant to §722-C of the County Law are hiring investigators who are not licensed by the State of New York. §722-c of the County Law and the Assigned Counsel Program Voucher regulations require that assigned counsel obtain court permission before hiring an investigator. §70(2) of the General Business Law requires the licensing of private investigators. In fact, it is a misdemeanor to engage in the private investigation business without a license. See, GBL §70(4). In order to comply with state law, our office is requesting that you ascertain whether the State of New York currently licenses a prospective investigator before you hire that individual to investigate an assigned case.
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