Budget Worries At Orleans Public Defender Office

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Citing budget concerns, the Orleans Public Defenders office plans a general hiring freeze and cutbacks on legal representation for poor defendants in New Orleans traffic and municipal courts.

Orleans Parish Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton says in a news release that the office also will refuse to pay for defense attorneys in new capital murder cases assigned to the office and will implement a pay cut for management employees, according to The Times-Picayune.

On Monday, the public defender office and Louisiana Public Defender Board filed a lawsuit in Baton Rouge, saying Orleans Parish judges are routinely failing to assess mandatory fees on convicted defendants. These fees are supposed to support the public defender office.