Opinion ID: 1993425
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Public Defender Act's legislative history

Text: The Act's legislative history establishes that the Legislature intended that the OPD assume the costs of providing ancillary services to all indigent defendants. When the Legislature adopted the Public Defender Act, it specifically stated that the Act was to implement the recommendations contained in the December 22, 1966 Report of the New Jersey Commission on the Defense of Indigent Persons Accused of Crime (Defense Commission Report). L. 1967, c. 43, § 24. That report concluded that the cost of providing the service of the [Public] Defender Office should be borne entirely by the State without any provision for apportionment either of the entire cost or of any part thereof among the counties. Defense Commission Report at 2 (emphasis added). Concerned that apportionment of financial burden would mean apportionment of responsibility and control, the Defense Commission stated that quality and uniformity of service, the touchstones of the statute, would best be accomplished through the structure of a single system for the entire State ... with as little as possible of collateral burdens such as would be involved in dealing with twenty-one separate boards of freeholders. Ibid. The Commission envisioned minimal, if any, participation by the counties in the financing of indigent defense. It reasoned that to have the State bear all costs would ensure quality control, uniformity, economy, and greater efficiency than if the counties were to share any of the costs. In April 1967, the Legislature adopted the comprehensive, unified scheme that the Commission had recommended in its report. N.J.S.A. 2A:158A-1 to -25. Under that unitary, centralized system, the State assumed all costs for attorneys and for ancillary services. When the acting Governor signed the Public Defender Act, he noted that the State's administering and financing of the OPD was one of the results of a determined effort by the State government to do everything it possibly can to be of assistance to our counties   . The Public Defender's position that the counties be responsible for the costs of ancillary services for indigent defendants directly conflicts with the Governor's statement and with the Report that led to the creation and adoption of the Public Defender Act. New Jersey's statewide, state-funded Public Defender System, N.J.S.A. 2A:158A-1 to -25, went into effect July 1, 1967. We decide the question before us today under that statutory system. Although the statute was amended in 1987, the statutory sections relevant to the issue in this case remained substantially the same after the 1987 amendments.