Committee for Public Counsel Services

This is a state audit of the agency that provides lawyers for people who cannot afford them when the law requires representation.

“Chapter 211D established CPCS as the sole state agency responsible for providing legal services to indigent persons who are entitled by law to be represented by legal counsel.”

Auditors checked whether CPCS had proper controls over spending, bills, budgets, and whether it fixed problems found in an earlier audit.

“Our audit was conducted to determine whether proper internal administrative controls were in place to ensure the appropriateness and accuracy of all expenditures, review budgeting and bill paying practices, and conduct a follow-up review of corrective action taken on prior audit results.”

This matters because CPCS was spending hundreds of millions of public dollars on legal representation, court costs, and administration.

“Our follow-up review revealed that, during fiscal years 1997 through 1999, CPCS spent approximately $251 million for private criminal, private noncriminal, public defender administration, and court costs to represent the indigent, as follows:”

For taxpayers, the issue is whether public money is going only to people who qualify and whether bills are checked before payment.

“To ensure that only individuals who are entitled to receive legal services from CPCS are in fact receiving these services, CPCS should work with the Emergency Task Force on Indigency Verification to establish procedures to establish a control system for the provision of legal services.”

CPCS made some improvements after the earlier audit, but the report still found unresolved eligibility controls, one major overbilling case, and recurring need for extra funding.

“Our follow-up review indicated that CPCS had taken some action to address these issues.”

The report recommends stronger billing checks, yearly attorney evaluations, better eligibility controls, better court-cost controls, and more timely billing information.

“In order to more accurately estimate its budget needs, CPCS should:”

The audit highlights a basic public-accountability problem: CPCS pays for court-assigned legal services, but courts decide who gets them and billing information can arrive late.

“Although CPCS is responsible for providing legal counsel to indigent individuals, it is the court, not CPCS, that determines who is entitled to receive legal representation from CPCS.”

CPCS means the Committee for Public Counsel Services; “indigent” means a person judged unable to afford counsel; NAC forms record court assignments; RFPs and Telebills are lawyer billing methods.

“All cases assigned to CPCS by a court are recorded on a Notice of Assignment of Counsel (NAC) form.”