MT Code § 47-1-125 (2021)
2021 Montana Code Annotated|Title 47. Access to Legal Services|Chapter 1. Statewide Public Defender System|Part 1. General|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.  (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.   History: En. Sec. 27, Ch. 358, L. 2017; amd. Sec. 78, Ch. 261, L. 2021.