Case weights for federal defender organizations
By: Nicholas M. Pace ... [et al.].
Series: Technical report -- TR-1007-AOUSC
Publisher: RAND
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Santa Monica, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 275
ISBN-13: 9780833053121
Subjects: Legal services; Statistics; Public defenders
Description: Attorneys working at federal defender organizations (FDOs) represent financially eligible individuals in federal criminal prosecutions and related proceedings, both at the trial court level and on appeal. This report describes a statistically reliable system of case weights, based on the national averages of attorney hours expended in various types of cases, and examines issues related to factors, other than the type of case, that might affect the amount of resources necessary for providing an effective defense. It also asks whether employing case weights makes sense for evaluating and projecting FDO resource needs, what might be the best ways for calculating those weights, and what appeared to be the most-significant limitations on their application in this manner. It presents the main findings regarding a functional case-weighting system for FDOs, discusses the examination of factors that could influence attorney time expenditures, examines issues related to caseload projections, sets forth historical weighted caseload totals for the federal defender system, and makes recommendations for increasing the accuracy and functionality of any future case-weight update.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-275).
Table of contents: title: Overview of methodological approach; title: Factors other than case type that influence attorney time; title: Case weights based on national hours of attorney time per case type; title: Weighted caseloads at the federal defender organizations; title: Statistical reliability of the proposed case-weights system; title: Projecting caseloads.