Recently, many of our members have come to believe that they will no longer receive reimbursements from the county for travel as in the past. We have clarified this issue with the office’s Chief Labor Counsel and have come to understand that there has been no change in the policy, but only a pledge to [...]
This New York Times article from April 6, 2009, discusses the steps New York is taking to deal with unreasonable public defender case loads Click here: Public Defenders’ Caseloads to Be Capped in New York City – NYTimes.com
Read here about the caseload problems for Miami public defenders and their plan to stop accepting appointment on new cases: http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/555857.html.
The Chicago Tribune reported on May 29, 2008, that private law firms are facing attorney layoffs as a result of slow business in today’s difficult economic times. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-thu_sonnenschein-law-firmmay29,0,7316409.story However, there are some important differences between layoffs in the private sector and layoffs in the Public Defender Office: 1) in the private sector layoffs may mean [...]
We are not the only Public Defender office in the country to have to fight for our jobs and adequate numbers of attorneys to represent the thousands of indigent clients in need. Public Defenders in Minnesota are now facing the same budget issues we have faced the last several years: http://www.startribune.com/local/19160754.html. We can only hope [...]
As a reminder, it is reversible error in a DNA case for the judge to permit the prosecution, over the objection of the defense, to introduce any evidence that the defendant’s DNA profile was in a DNA database. People v. Jackson, 865 N.E.2d 195 (1st Dist. 2007). This situation comes up mostly in cold-hit cases, where [...]
Here is the latest talk on the county budget as reported in the Tribune. There is still no clear answer on whether revenue increases or budget cuts will win out. So we continue to press the Public Defender message with elected officials and others. The Union has spoken with key County Commissioners and others in an [...]
Council 31 is aware that Unicare is telling HMO members that they have to use non-Rush Hospital doctors because of a failure to reach a service agreement with Rush Hospital. For your information, Unicare and Rush have a February 15th deadline for reaching an agreement, so this may still occur. If this does not occur, past [...]
The Chicago Appleseed organization just published a report on the functioning of our felony courts system in Cook County. The report was based on a 2-year review of the system. This report discusses the public defender system, in part, and makes recommendations for reforms to our system. The bottom line conclusion of the report is [...]
In case you haven’t noticed, the promotional Grade III and Grade IV postings are back up. Even if you slipped in an application prior to the original postings being rescinded, you must apply again, with the new posting number.
