Lynn District Court Probation Department's Indigency Determination Process for State-Sponsored Legal Services

This is a state audit of how Lynn District Court checked whether defendants were poor enough to qualify for state-paid legal counsel.

“The objective of our work at each district court was limited to determining the extent to which probation staff in these courts were complying with their mandated responsibility established by Chapter 211D to ensure that a defendant claiming to be indigent meets the definition of indigence.”

The auditor was reviewing the public counsel system and chose 27 district courts, including Lynn, to see whether local probation offices were doing the required eligibility checks.

“As part of our audit of the CPCS, we selected a representative sample of 27 of the Commonwealth’s 70 district courts to review.”

Public defenders are meant for people who legally qualify, so weak checks can mean the state pays for lawyers without enough proof that the defendants were eligible.

“Chapter 211D charges the CPCS with the responsibility of providing legal counsel services to indigent persons entitled to representation by law.”

For a resident or taxpayer, the issue is whether public money for legal defense was being controlled properly and fairly.

“As a result of these conditions, there is inadequate assurance that the funding provided to the CPCS to retain public counsel for the 4,593 individuals deemed indigent by the LDC in fiscal year 2010 was appropriately spent.”

The court’s probation department lacked formal written procedures, did not routinely verify defendants’ financial claims, and did not keep all required paperwork.

“Our audit found that the Probation Department of the Lynn District Court (LDC) has not established any formal, written policies and procedures relative to ensuring that only eligible individuals are provided with state-sponsored legal counsel services.”

The auditor recommended that Lynn District Court immediately follow the law, create written procedures, improve internal controls, and fix record retention practices.

“In order to address our concerns relative to this matter, we recommend that the LDC Probation Department take measures to immediately comply with all the requirements of Chapter 211D of the General Laws.”

The finding affected a real workload: Lynn District Court provided state-paid counsel to 4,593 people in fiscal year 2010, but auditors said the court lacked enough assurance that all of it was proper.

“During this same period, the LDC provided legal counsel services to 4,593 of these individuals determined to be indigent by the LDC Probation Department.”

“Indigency” means a person is financially unable to pay for counsel under legal standards; “CPCS” is the state public counsel agency; “AOTC” set the court record-keeping rules.

“Rule 3:10, Section 1, of the Supreme Judicial Court defines an indigent person as an individual who is:”