Montana Code 47-1-125. Reports
47-1-125. Reports. (1) (a) The office shall submit a biennial report to the governor, the supreme court, and the law and justice interim committee in accordance with 5-11-210.
Terms Used In Montana Code 47-1-125
- Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
- Court: means the supreme court, a district court, a youth court, a justice's court, a municipal court, or a city court. See Montana Code 47-1-103
- Director: means the director of the office of state public defender hired by the director of the department of administration as provided in 2-15-1029. See Montana Code 47-1-103
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Office: means the office of state public defender established in 2-15-1029. See Montana Code 47-1-103
- Public defender: means an attorney employed by or under contract with the office and assigned to provide legal counsel to a person under the provisions of this chapter, including attorneys employed by or under contract with the appellate defender division and the conflict defender division. See Montana Code 47-1-103
- Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
- system: means the system of public defender services established pursuant to this chapter. See Montana Code 47-1-103
(b)The biennial report must cover the preceding biennium and include:
(i)all policies or procedures in effect for the operation and administration of the statewide public defender system;
(ii)all standards of practice established or being considered by the director for the public defender division, the appellate defender division, and the conflict defender division;
(iii)the number of deputy public defenders and the region supervised by each;
(iv)the number of public defenders employed or contracted with in the system, identified by region, if appropriate, and office;
(v)the number of nonattorney staff employed or contracted with in the system, identified by region, if appropriate, and office;
(vi)the number of new cases in which counsel was assigned to represent a party, identified by region, court, and case type;
(vii)the total number of persons represented by the public defender division, the appellate defender division, and the conflict defender division identified by region, if appropriate, court, and case type;
(viii)the annual caseload and workload of each public defender identified by region, if appropriate, court, and case type;
(ix)the training programs conducted by the office and the number of attorney and nonattorney staff who attended each program;
(x)the continuing education courses on criminal defense or criminal procedure attended by each public defender employed or contracted with in the system; and
(xi)detailed expenditure data by court and case type.
(2)The office shall report data for each fiscal year by September 30 of the subsequent fiscal year representing the caseload for the entire statewide public defender system to the governor, the legislature in accordance with 5-11-210, and legislative fiscal analyst. The report must include unduplicated count data for all cases for which representation is paid for by the office, the number of new cases opened, the number of cases closed, the number of cases that remain open and active, the number of cases that remain open but are inactive, and the average number of days between case opening and closure for each case type. The report must be provided in an electronic format.
(3)(a) For the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011, and every 5 years thereafter, the legislative fiscal analyst shall compare the percentage change in general fund revenue for the previous 5 years to the percentage change in the amounts allocated to local governments under the provisions of 15-1-121, as amended in 2005, and the actual costs for public defender services for the same time period.
(b)The results of the comparison must be reported to the governor, legislative finance committee, law and justice interim committee, and supreme court the following fiscal year and in accordance with 5-11-210.