By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer
July 04, 2009 09:27 pm
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If the number of cases at the end of June 2009 — the end of the fiscal year — is what was expected, Muskogee County’s indigent defense attorneys will make about $191.32 per case.
For 10 years, the Muskogee County contract to give legal representation to indigent defendants has been awarded to Roger Hilfiger, the lowest bidder.
The Oklahoma Indigent Defense System accepts those bids. The cost of the contract during that time for all court-appointed, non-capital criminal cases in Muskogee County was for:
• FY-2007 through FY-2010 — $225,000 each year.
• FY-2004 through FY-2006 — $210,000 each year.
• FY-2001 through FY-2003 — $225,000 each year.
• FY-1999 through FY-2000 — $185,000 each year.
• FY-1998 — $175,000.
The reason for the drop in Hilfiger’s bid for the contract in FY-2004 through FY-2006 may have been more competition for the contract, OIDS officials said.
OIDS was appointed under state law.
Caseloads have increased, and there has been an upswing in the numbers since the economy took a nosedive, said one of the attorneys who does 30 percent of the indigent defense cases here, Jay Cook.
Approximately 75 of the cases assigned to the Muskogee County contract are felony cases, said Tim Laughlin, chief of the Non-capital Trial Division of the OIDS. Other cases involve juveniles, traffic or misdemeanors, he said.
“We anticipate the Muskogee County contract will have been assigned a total of 1,176 cases by the end of Fiscal Year 2009 (June 30, 2009)” Laughlin said.
At the above number of assignments, the Muskogee County contract is paid $191.32 per case, Laughlin said. The state average — about $232 per case, he said.
Payments on the county contracts are made in 12 monthly payments.
Statewide, there are about 38,000 to 40,000 non-capital cases a year, Laughlin said.
Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore said he remembers that back in the 1980s an indigent defense attorney got $150 for representing a client through a preliminary hearing and $500 for a jury trial.
The numbers of indigent clients have increased since then, he said.
OIDS took a 6 percent cut in its budget in the fiscal year ending June 30. The total annual budget was a little more than $19 million, which means the cut was a little more than $1 million, Laughlin said.
There was a shortfall in the budget in June of 1.4 percent, he said.
The OIDS is very important, Moore said Friday.
“There are lots of indigents who cannot afford an attorney,” he said.
The attorneys who work with indigent clients here do have a huge responsibility, just on the sheer numbers they represent, Moore said.
“I think they do a more than an adequate job,” he said.
Being able to manage the caseload they have takes as much talent as being able to handle the actual defense, he said.
Reach Donna Hales at 684-2923 or dhales@muskogeephoenix.com.
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