Indigent defense changes endorsed

A Nevada Supreme Court commission on Tuesday endorsed making immediate changes to Clark County's system of appointing private lawyers to indigent defendants.

The commission, formed last month after the Review-Journal exposed the system's lack of standards and supervision, is examining indigent defense issues statewide.

At the first meeting of the commission on Tuesday, Assistant County Manager Liz Quillin said court appointments will cost the county about $7 million this year. They had been projected to cost only about $5 million.

The unexpected expense has prompted a study of whether the county should make changes to the "contract attorney" system or eliminate it altogether, Quillin said.

"We have a problem that we need to look at now," Quillin said at the meeting. "There's such a pressing urgency based on the money we're spending that we need to drill down into it now."

A committee of local judges was waiting for the Supreme Court commission to weigh in before proceeding with its own proposed reforms to a system that has remained virtually untouched for more than 20 years. Tuesday's discussion allows the local judges to forge ahead.

District Judge Stewart Bell, who is heading the local committee, said it will meet in the next few days to polish its proposals. All Clark County district judges will likely vote on them in June. Annual contracts for conflict attorneys go into effect July 1.

The Review-Journal series, "Conflicted Justice," exposed serious flaws in the system of assigning private lawyers to defendants who cannot be represented by a full-time public defender because of some conflict of interest.

The newspaper analysis found that some contract defenders in a recent one-year period gave little attention to many of the cases they were assigned to handle for a flat monthly fee of $3,000. Other appointed attorneys spent a disproportionate amount of time or vastly overbilled the county for work on serious felony cases that qualified them for an hourly fee from the county.

District Court Administrator Chuck Short said his office has taken action in response to the articles.

In a recently completed audit of invoices submitted by three attorneys profiled in the series, court officials confirmed the newspaper's findings of overbilling, Short said.

Christopher Tilman, an attorney who was appointed to hundreds of cases in Clark County Family Court, repeatedly billed for more than 24 hours in a given day.

Problems were also found in bills submitted by contract defenders Greg Denue and Paul Wommer, Short said.

Wommer said in a phone interview that he bills honestly and was surprised court officials found any discrepancies. Tilman and Denue could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

The results of the audit will be presented next month to a county committee that reviews attorney invoices, Short said. That committee can recommend that the court seek to discipline the attorneys or require them to repay the county for inflated charges.

Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, another contract defender the newspaper examined, verbally resigned his duties, Short said.

Horne turned over his contract work to an associate who was fresh out of law school while he attended this year's legislative session. He himself had been assigned to serious felony cases shortly after passing the state bar, raising concerns about the qualifications of some court-appointed defenders.

Bell's committee has proposed vastly reducing the role judges play in hiring and overseeing contract defenders who appear regularly in their courts, and creating a panel to look at an attorney's level of experience.

"Some of the things raised by the Review-Journal are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed in the short-term" Bell said at Tuesday's meeting.

The local committee also proposed giving contract defenders the same tools as attorneys in the public defender's office, including improved access to defendants who are in jail and to investigators.

The goal of the Supreme Court commission is to bring all of Nevada's indigent defense systems into compliance with American Bar Association standards, Chief Justice Bill Maupin said at Tuesday's commission meeting. Clark County's contract system violates most of those standards.

The Supreme Court commission on Tuesday created three new subcommittees to examine caseloads, independence of the judiciary, and indigent defense issues facing rural counties.

David Carroll, research director for the Washington-based National Legal Aid and Defender Association, told the commission that indigent defense in Nevada has two major flaws.

"Your problem in this state really is judicial interference in the public defender system," Carroll said. "And in Washoe and Clark counties, your issue is caseload."

A growing caseload in the Clark County court system partially accounts for the spike in appointments and spending on part-time public defenders.

County Public Defender Phil Kohn said at Tuesday's meeting that the felony caseload in his office is approaching 400 per attorney.

"We're at the highest level we've ever been," Kohn said.

Robert Langford, a Supreme Court commission member and contract defender, said the number of contract cases he is handling has tripled in the past few years.

Langford said he and other contract defenders disagreed with several of the local committee's recommendations, but supported an independent selection process of contract attorneys that would not involve individual judges. Langford will help Bell refine the local committee's recommendations.

As the county moves toward fixing the contract system, it is exploring two long-term options: settling for an overhaul of the contract system or working toward an alternate public defender's office, like the one that will open in Washoe County later this year.

Quillin said all options are on the table for the county.

"It's alarming, especially because there's a question about our ability to audit these bills and to make sure people are getting quality representation," she said during a break in Tuesday's meeting.

Bell said the long-term solution requires creating a formal office with full-time public defenders to handle conflict cases.