List and describe the three primary methods used in the United States to provide indigent defendants with attorneys

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There are three primary methods used in the United States to provide indigents with attorneys—the assigned counsel system, the contract system, and the public defender system. The assigned counsel system appoints attorneys from a list of available private attorneys in a given jurisdiction. It is used in half of the counties in the U.S., but serves less than one-third of the population. Contract systems, in contrast, involve bidding by private attorneys to represent all indigents during the term of a contract for a fixed price. Contract systems are found in counties with populations of less than 50,000 and where there is an absolute budgetary limit on defense services for indigent defendants. It is noteworthy to add that some state courts have found contract systems to be legally defective. The third type of system—the public defender system—is used to represent an estimated 70 percent of the nation's indigent defendants. This system uses attorneys who are employed by private or by government organizations for the purpose of representing indigent defendants. The public defender system began in Los Angeles County in 1914.