Los Angeles County Reconsiders Its Reliance On Flat-Fee Juvenile Defenders

In March 2016, the Los Angeles County, California Board of Supervisors decided to consider how to change the juvenile public defender system to reduce its reliance on flat-fee defenders. The goal is to improve equity of representation for juveniles. Currently, the County’s Public Defender’s Office is not able to handle all cases, and to solve conflicts of interest, such as in cases where there are multiple defendants accused in the same crime, one case will be handled by the public defender’s office and the others will be assigned to one of eight panel attorneys under contract . . .