PIERRE — A task force to determine issues faced by legal defense services in South Dakota is almost inked into law. Following a 34-1 vote in the Senate, the bill will now go to Gov. Kristi Noem’s desk for final approval.

The 13-member task force was called for by the South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen in his annual state of the judiciary speech and will seek to address how the state could better support defense services for indigent parties, something officials have said has been a piecemeal process handled at the county level.

Throughout hearings, supporters of the task force spoke to the drain on county resources when defendants, who are constitutionally required to have representation, use court-appointed attorneys that then bill the county for their legal services.

It was estimated that counties, who foot the bill for indigent defense cases, spent at least $20 million on such defense services and were reimbursed 3% in 2022. However, the state does not fund reimbursements.

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“The counties can do their best to collect those fees from those defendants to be paid back,” said Greg Sattizahn, a lobbyist for the Unified Judicial System. “I will tell you, from all my conversations with county auditors, that’s very difficult to do to expect that those fees get paid back.”

Some have proposed creating a regional public defenders office, similar to the three public defender offices in Minnehaha County, Pennington County and Lawrence County. The main hope is the task force will figure out best solutions for providing defense services to those who can’t afford it and the lawyers defending them.

Because of an emergency clause attached to the bill, the UJS-headed task force could pick members as soon as Noem signals approval rather than wait until July to start.

What are defense attorneys currently facing?

In his address to the legislature, Jensen said there’s an issue trying to find attorneys to represent clients in rural areas. Most of the time, the 63 counties without public defender offices contract with private attorneys or rely on a list of court-appointed attorneys.

Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, who works as a criminal defense attorney, agreed.

He said defense attorneys who travel to take cases in smaller counties tend to take a financial hit. That’s because they get reimbursed a dollar per mile, rather than for the time spent on the travel, something unchanged since Wheeler started practicing law in 2006.

Senator David Wheeler asks a question of one of the investigators during the impeachment trial of attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre.

But if the UJS, which sets the reimbursement rate for attorneys, were to raise the dollar amount on reimbursement, counties would also be financially impacted.

In large cases, such as abuse and neglect cases, when there are numerous defendants, the county can be tasked with finding multiple attornies.

“How do you provide that service without breaking the bank of counties?” Wheeler said.

What are the goals of the task force?

The task force will include four members appointed by Jensen, three county representatives, two lawyers, two lawmakers, one from the Senate and one from the House of Representatives, a state’s attorney and a member of the attorney general’s office.

They will look at five areas. Those areas include:

Identifying how legal services are delivered in the state to indigent parties in criminal, juvenile, child abuse and neglect cases;

Recommending ways to improve the delivery of legal services to indigent parties;

Recommending methods to provide services for conflict cases where local public defenders may be unable to take cases;

Addressing how to ensure competent representation is provided to indigent parties; and

Identifying potential funding options for the delivery of legal services for indigent parties.

What does the public defender office look like in Minnehaha County?

There are 27 public defenders who make up the public defender’s office located in Sioux Falls, said Traci Smith, head public defender via email.

While the public defender’s office closed 8,112 cases in 2022, up 6% from 2021, she said the numbers don’t often tell the stories of how many clients they represent who have multiple cases.

“A homeless client may have multiple arrests for unlawful occupancy. An addict may have two or three possession of controlled substance charges,” Smith said. “These individuals are not just numbers, but require valuable resources.”

Smith said with the rising cost of indigent defense across the state, she believed the statewide study would be valuable.

This story originally ran in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. You can read that version here. 

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The post New South Dakota task force aims to better support attorneys defending residents in legal trouble appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.