NYCLU Reaches Settlement with Ontario County as part of Landmark Public Defense Suit Against New York State

The New York Civil Liberties Union reached an agreement today with Ontario County, one of the five counties named in its landmark class-action lawsuit aimed at overhauling New York State’s failed public defense system for poor or indigent defendants. The settlement comes after ongoing efforts by Ontario County to enhance public defense services for poor people accused of crimes before the lawsuit, Hurrell-Harring v. New York, goes to trial in the fall.

“For more than half a century, New York State has abdicated its responsibility to provide counsel to people too poor to afford an attorney, making justice in much of our state a luxury for the rich. We applaud Ontario County for taking steps to provide public defense services to its most vulnerable residents in the face of the state’s inaction,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “Every day, New Yorkers appear for their initial hearings before judges without attorneys by their side. Unrepresented, people accused of things like shoplifting end up languishing in jail for weeks or even months because they can’t afford exorbitant bail. Or they plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit because it’s easier and they can avoid jail time. There is no justice under these conditions.”

In 2007, the NYCLU and law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP filed Hurrell-Harring on behalf of indigent defendants, demanding state reform in five counties: Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington. As a result of inadequate public defense, the lead plaintiff, Kimberly Hurrell-Harring, a 31-year-old mother of two was sentenced to four months in jail for a felony when she had only committed a misdemeanor, losing her job and home in the process.

Prior to the lawsuit, Ontario County’s public defense system consisted solely of a program to contract with private attorneys to represent indigent defendants on a case-by-case basis. Since then, Ontario County created a Public Defender’s Office to improve the quality of public defense. Today’s settlement locks in this service, creates caseload limits for overworked attorneys and requires monitoring and reporting on the public defense system. Moreover, should New York State provide the necessary funding, Ontario County agrees to ensure that lawyers are available to represent defendants at arraignments and investigators and experts can be hired when required for adequate representation.

“This settlement with Ontario County is a substantial step forward but also illustrates the need for New York State to commit to ending the blatant violations of the rights of low-income criminal defendants,” said Corey Stoughton, senior staff attorney at the NYCLU and lead counsel on the case. “State funding and oversight of the public defense system is more efficient, effective and fiscally responsible than the current uncoordinated, underfunded patchwork of county systems. The state must take the necessary steps to address what the counties cannot do on their own.”

Under the settlement agreement Ontario County agrees to:

• Maintain a professional office dedicated solely to the full-time provision of defense services to poor people, and ensure that public defender salaries are comparable to prosecutor salaries;
• Enforce reasonable caseload limits as required by the New York State Bar Association;
• Establish minimum practice standards for attorneys;
• Provide bi-annual reporting regarding the quality of public defense services; and
• If New York State provides funding, ensure all criminal defendants have legal representation when they stand accused before a judge.

The settlement is subject to final approval by the New York State Supreme Court. Should the settlement be approved, the NYCLU’s lawsuit will still proceed to trial in the fall of 2014 against New York State and four named counties: Washington, Onondaga, Suffolk and Schuyler. It will be the first trial of its kind in the nation.

“You can’t have a properly functioning criminal justice system without a properly functioning system of public defense,” said Gary Stein, litigation partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel and a former federal prosecutor. “The prosecution, the judge and the defendant all benefit when defense counsel performs in the way the Constitution envisions. The broken public defense system in our state can and must be fixed. If the state continues to ignore its responsibilities, we’re confident the courts will step in.”

Click here to read the full settlement agreement