Louisiana's System

The Louisiana State Constitution guarantees that when any person has been arrested or detained in connection with the investigation or commission of any offense, he shall be advised fully of the reason for his arrest or detention, his right to remain silent, his right against self incrimination, his right to the assistance of counsel and, if indigent, his right to court appointed counsel. At each stage of the proceedings, every person is entitled to assistance of counsel of his choice, or appointed by the court if he is indigent and charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment. It is the responsibility of the legislature to provide for a uniform system for securing and compensating qualified counsel for indigents. (Article 1, Section 13) 


The Louisiana Public Defender Board (LPDB) was created on August 15, 2007 and is the primary regulatory agency for the state’s public defender system. LPDB is an agency in the Office of the Governor. It is supervised by a 17-member volunteer board and has approximately 18 staff. Its offices are in Baton Rouge, LA. Jean M. Faria is the State Public Defender, and began in the position on June 1, 2008. Other statutory positions at the state agency include: Director of Juvenile Defense Services; Director of Training; Budget Officer; Trial-Level and Juvenile Justice Compliance Officers; and an Information Technology and Management Officer. The Board also created two other executive staff positions: a Capital Case Coordinator and Special Projects Advisor.

LPDB administers the Public Defender Fund, which supports all 42 judicial districts and covers expert witness fees and a limited number of DNA tests to prove possible innocence and contracts with eight 501(c)3 non-profit organizations which provide appellate representation, capital representation at the trial level when a conflict exists in the district, capital post-conviction representation and representation of claims of innocence for persons serving life sentences in Louisiana. LPDB provides no direct representation but regulates the representation of public defense services through contractual agreements, budget and programmatic policies, training, outreach and other activities.

The state does not provide exclusive funding for Louisiana’s public defender system. Each Judicial District has a local Indigent Defense Fund, managed by a District Defender as an independent Political Subdivision. The Public Defender Act of 2007 does not promote any specific defense delivery mechanism, but allows local districts flexibility to adopt the model that works best for their district. Local districts determine their delivery model, utilizing one or a combination of the mechanisms below:

1) Contract System: The District Defender may enter into a contract or contracts with an attorney licensed to practice in the state of Louisiana and living in the judicial district to provide indigent defense services.

2) Part-Time Staff Public Defender System: A staff office with attorneys engaged in public defender work, who may also take on private civil and/or criminal clients, per office policy.

3) Full-Time Staff Public Defender System: A staff office with attorneys engaged in public defender work, who are prohibited from accepting compensation for any private practice.

Approximately 60% of the state’s public defense funding comes from the state; the remainder comes from locally generated revenue streams. An extremely limited amount comes from grants or private sources.

Seven districts have staff public defender programs. Five of these are part-time systems; only two prohibit their staff from any private practice (Orleans and Calcasieu). The majority of other districts provide services through contracts with individual attorneys. Each District Defender has a binding contract with LPDB, which requires supervision of district public defender office staff, reporting requirements, financial management practices and other obligations. At present, all district public defender offices have a District Defender, or interim District Defender, in place.

Finally, the eight non-profits with whom LPDB contracts are: Louisiana Appellate Project, Capital Appeals Project, Innocence Project New Orleans, Louisiana Capital Assistance Project, Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana and three regional Capital Conflict Panels (New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport).

Act 307 requires LPDB to develop and enact a number of specific rules and regulations to be enacted by the State Board. LPDB has completed adoption of several regulations, and continues to work on many others in its regular Board meetings (8-10 per year). The Board appears to be taking a very deliberate approach to its regulatory work, forging new ground by working in coalition with advocates and defenders and expanding the mission of the new state agency.

They are joined by national support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Vera Institute for Justice, Anne E. Casey Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, National Juvenile Defender Center, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Brennan Center for Justice and other major foundations and advocacy partners.

Board staff and members will build on the public defense reform required by the Louisiana Public Defender Act of 2007 to continue to improve the quality of public defense, supported by the efforts of the Louisiana Justice Coalition and its member agencies to ensure that poor defendants have equal justice under the law.

For more information, visit the Louisiana Public Defender Board