When indigent defendants request a lawyer, a $50 application fee is tacked on to their bills.
The fee pays the cost of verifying that people who say they can't afford a lawyer are telling the truth, said David Dunn, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit public defender.
Though the verification is done locally, money from the fee goes into the state general fund. But a law passed this year by the Legislature allows public defenders to set up a verification system approved by the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.
Once the system is approved, half of the fee would come back to the judicial circuit.
It's a boon for his cash-strapped office, Mr. Dunn said.
"It's up to each public defender whether or not they want to do it in their circuit," he said.
Mr. Dunn estimates that, if successful, the system could bring $18,000 to $20,000 back to the circuit.
But another local public defender said the work to recoup fee money may not pay for itself.
Conasauga Public Defender Mike McCarthy said low local funding, a hiring freeze and state furloughs make the task nearly impossible at this point. He would have to hire an investigator or use his staff to run the verifications, and he said the fee share might not cover the cost.
"I'm not opposed to the idea," Mr. McCarthy said. "I would like to revisit the issue in 2010 depending how the local economy rebounds from the recession."
Verification involves reviewing tax records, checking for bank accounts and even looking at assets. Both men said it's fairly rare for defendants to claim indigency when they can afford a lawyer.
Mr. Dunn said many indigent defendants can't even afford the $50 application fee to file paperwork claiming indigency.
In that case, he said, the fee is added to fines, fees and court costs owed by the defendant and collected after a trial.
Todd South covers courts and the military for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper for three years and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact Todd ...
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