Public Reports
For the convenience of its members and the interested public, LACDL maintains on its web site, or through links to colleague web sites, access to documents of note to criminal defense lawyers in Louisiana.
National Legal Aid & Defender Association:
A Strategic Plan to Ensure Accountability & Protect Fairness in Louisiana's Criminal Courts (Released September 22, 2006)
"One of the greatest challenges facing the Louisiana legal system as we start to rebuild and repopulate the areas devastated by the hurricanes is protecting the constitutional rights of indigent defendants and providing them access to adequate legal representation. This is one of our basic constitutional rights, and one that all lawyers should seek to protect and defend."
Frank Neuner, Jr. Louisiana State Bar Association Immediate Past President
Click here to view this document in PDF Format
The Provision of the Right to Counsel in Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Study of indigent defense services in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Major Findings include: 1) Total financial resources available to the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office are three times greater than those available to the Public Defender's Office. 2) Caddo public defenders carry caseloads far in excess of standards set by the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board. 3) The failure to promptly meet with clients costs taxpayers money. 4) Fully 65% of "indigent clients" had full-time jobs at the time of their arrests and detention. 5) People of color are disproportionately affected by the failure of the system to adequately protect their right to counsel. 6) Inadequate public defender funding and staffing increases the likelihood that indigent clients receive poor outcomes.Click here to view this document in PDF format
Calcasieu Parish Indigent Defense Report
Study of indigent defense services in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Finds that lack of defender resources and judiciary tolerant of excessive delays results in systemic denial of indigent defendant's right to counsel.Click here to view this document in PDF format
Assessment of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services in Louisiana
Click here to be taken to the National Legal Aid & Defender Association web site's page with PDFs of this report in full or summary formIn Defense of Public Access to Justice: An Assessment of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services in Louisiana 40 Years After Gideon
"If you're poor in Louisiana, you have no real access to justice. This is the inevitable conclusion of a report from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA).
Click here to be taken to the NACDL web site page with a PDF of this report.