NYC’s Assigned Counsel Program Is in Crisis, Bar Groups Warn (1)

New York City has failed to access more than $50 million in state funds to staff up and improve a program providing criminal counsel to indigent defendants, says a task force of city bar associations.

The Assigned Counsel Plan that resides in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice lacks independence from the judiciary and is unable to access the funding it needs to meet the state’s basic standards for access to legal services, according to an interim report published Wednesday by the New York City Bar Association and seven other bar groups throughout the city. The task force said it ...