American Justice: Poor clients pay just to apply for a public defender

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Poor clients pay just to apply for a public defender

A fee hike in New Jersey’s largest municipal court points to a national trend in offender-funded justice

NEWARK, N.J. — Newly elected Mayor Ras J. Baraka, a former high school principal and son of the late poet Amiri Baraka, ran on promises of compassionate reform. He would strengthen the public schools, alleviate poverty and use community policing to bring peace to his majority-African American hometown. But in November, a few months into his term, Baraka quietly helped pass a law that criminal justice advocates say will hurt the city’s most vulnerable: He quadrupled the fee Newark Municipal Court can charge poor defendants applying for free legal representation.

The fee hike, from $50 to $200, is the latest notch in the national trend of charging “user fees” to fund struggling courts. The Sixth Amendment and a long line of Supreme Court cases promise a lawyer to every person accused of a crime, even those who cannot pay. In practice, though, indigent clients often do pay for their attorneys, particularly in lower-level courts.

Around the same time as the fee increase in Newark, New Jersey’s superior courts raised a raft of fees to file and respond to civil cases. And the Office of the Public Defender, or OPD, which works in the superior courts, announced that it would charge a flat fee per case, instead of an hourly sum, to encourage more clients to pay.

Baraka’s office has said that judges can waive the $200 application fee if they determine a client cannot pay, and that the increase brings the city’s municipal court — the busiest in the state — in line with those of other jurisdictions. Legal groups, including the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Bar Association, however, warn that public-defender application fees can deter the accused from seeking counsel.

“For the most part, [my clients] don’t have [the application fee]. It’s a lot of money,” said Anthony Cowell, an OPD staff attorney who previously represented defendants in the Mercer County municipal courts. “It’s been said it’s a revenue-generator, but you’re charging people who absolutely can’t afford it. They’re homeless, they’re mentally ill, they’re in shelters.… Maybe they collect [Social Security Disability] income, but it’s all spoken for.”…More Here

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