Indigent Defense Commission (IDC)
GRANT APPLICATION / 1) Agency Name Address: (include full 9-digit zip code):
2) Project Director / 3) Phone:
4) Email: / 5) Agency Tax ID #:
6) DUNS Number: / 7) Grant Start – End Dates
8) Grant Type: / Is the System applying for a: c Matching Grant c Critical Needs Grant c Other Grant
9) Budget Summary / How will the IDC Grant Money be used?
Personnel (FTE) expenses / $
Fringe Benefits for Personnel: / $
Contract Services – non-FTE attorneys or staff. / $
Reserve Funds: To provide non-personnel services to attorneys for: investigators, experts, translators, laboratory analysis, other forensic services, appeals, and other trial expenses related to the scope of the indigent defense work they perform. / $
Equipment, Supplies, Operating Expenses / $
Travel / $
Attorney Training / $
Other (explain): / $
Column Total / $
10) **Print Name and Title of Official Authorized to Sign
11) Signature of Official Authorized to Sign
For IDC Use Only – Director’s Signature indicates IDC Approval of Grant Application
Joanna E. Landau,
Director of IDC
* Project Director is the individual responsible for the day-to-day management of the grant program.
** Official authorized to sign includes: City Mayor, City Manager, County Mayor, County Manager, County Council Chair, or County Commissioner of the fiduciary agency.
IDC PURPOSEThe purpose of the Utah Indigent Defense Commission (IDC) is to assist the state in meeting its obligations to provide statewide indigent defense services, consistent with the State and Federal Constitutions, state law, and the mandates of the United States and Utah Supreme Court relating to the effective assistance of counsel in all appointed cases.
To apply for any IDC Award, the legislative body responsible for the indigent defense services in a System shall:
1. Adopt a Resolution stating the intent to apply for IDC grant funds, and commit to using the funds to help the indigent defense system meet minimum principles for effective representation in all appointed cases that is consistent with the State and Federal Constitutions, and with state law; and
2. Submit a certified copy of the Resolution together with an original completed application, with original signatures, including properly executed signatory approval.
- Please fill out the application as completely as possible and attach any additional pages if necessary.
- The completed application, Resolution, and all supporting documents should be emailed to the Indigent Defense Commission, at . Documents with original signatures should be retained with the applicant. Direct any questions about the application to Joanna Landau: 801-209-5440.
DEFINITIONS, GRANT TYPES, ELIGIBILITY, & AMOUNTSDEFINITIONS FOR THIS APPLICATION:
1. Indigent Defense System/a System: Refers to the local government entity responsible for providing indigent defense services, and includes a county, city, town or a regional legal defense service provider.
2. Baseline budget: Refers to a System’s annual expenditure for indigent defense services.
3. Minimum Principles: Refers to the principles the IDC has adopted for Systems to ensure the effective assistance of counsel in all court-appointed cases.
4. Effective Assistance/Effective Representation: Under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the obligation to provide effective assistance of counsel to indigent accused persons at each critical stage of criminal and juvenile delinquency proceedings, and in Abuse, Neglect, and Delinquency proceedings, rests with the state.
GRANT TYPES, ELIGIBILITY, & AMOUNTS
ELIGIBILITY FOR ALL IDC GRANTS
A. Only indigent defense Systems are eligible to apply for IDC grant funding.
B. A System must establish how any IDC grant money will be used to ensure effective and efficient representation in all appointed cases in the System, by meeting or exceeding minimum principles for effective representation.
C. To qualify for an IDC grant, a System must commit to maintaining and adjusting its baseline budget for indigent defense spending. IDC grants may not supplant local funding.
1. CRITICAL NEEDS GRANTS
A. A System must demonstrate to the IDC’s satisfaction, that it has or reasonably anticipates incurring expenses related to the provision of indigent defense services, in excess of the baseline budget, and that the spending is helping to ensure the effective assistance of counsel in all appointed cases; and that increasing the system's budget for these expenses would constitute an undue burden.
Critical Needs Grant Amounts: Applicants must set forth a specific grant amount request in the application, but critical needs grant award amounts are awardable at the IDC’s discretion.
2. MATCHING GRANTS.
A. The System must establish to the IDC’s satisfaction, that it is actually spending an amount greater than the prior baseline budget for indigent defense service providers; and
B. The System’s increased expenditures are intended to, and are actually achieving effective assistance of counsel in all appointed cases by meeting or exceeding minimum principles for effective representation; and
C. The System is monitoring the expenditures and defense services to ensure the effective assistance of counsel in all appointed cases in the System.
Matching Grant Amounts:
· For a Utah city or town: Matching grants may be awarded in an amount up to the city or town’s increased indigent defense spending above its baseline budget.
· For a Utah county: Matching grants may be awarded in an amount equal to the product of the increased spending above the county’s baseline budget and:
i. 50% for counties of the first class;
ii. 100% for counties of the second or third class; or
iii. 200% for counties of the fourth through sixth class.
3. OTHER IDC GRANTS: The IDC may also distribute discretionary grant monies to establish and maintain indigent defense data collection systems, and for other defense resources. A System applying for these grants must establish how they will be used to ensure effective and efficient representation in all appointed cases in the System, and increasing the System's budget for these expenses would constitute an undue burden.
IDC MINIMUM PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE REPRESENTATIONIn accordance with the Federal and State Constitutions, state law, and the mandates of the United States and Utah Supreme Court, the IDC has developed and adopted the following guiding principles for the assessment and oversight of indigent defense systems with the state.
ANY IDC GRANT MUST DEMONSTRATE HOW IT WILL ACHIEVE THESE PRINCIPLES.
The right to the effective assistance of counsel can be summed up as having effective representation at all critical stages of: a criminal prosecution, juvenile delinquency proceedings, and where statutorily mandated under Utah Code § 78A-6-1111, in Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Proceedings. Effective assistance is the right of the accused to full see that the prosecuting authority’s case to survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing, without interference, or fear of retaliation. The following principles adopted by the IDC are intended to help a System ensure effective assistance in all appointed cases in the state.
These principles are not intended as criteria for the judicial evaluation of alleged misconduct of defense counsel, or to determine the validity of a conviction, or to create substantive or procedural rights that may accrue to the accused, convicted persons, or counsel. Failure to adhere to such standards and guidelines does not, in and of itself, constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, and this paragraph must not be construed to overrule, expand or extend, whether directly or by analogy, the prevailing case law for making a determination regarding ineffective assistance of counsel.
1. Regionalization: Under state law, counties and municipalities are encouraged to enter into interlocal cooperation agreements for the provision of legal defense services. Utah Code § 77-32-306(4). IDC grant monies for critical needs and matching grants are contingent on a plan for regionalization.
2. Independence: Indigent defense service providers shall have independent judgment without fear of retaliation.
3. Interference: Neither the state, nor any local government, may interfere with an indigent defense service provider's access to clients and the service provider must be free to defend the client based on the service provider's own independent judgment.
4. Effectiveness: Service providers shall be free to provide meaningful representation with:
(a) Adequate access to defense resources; and
(b) Workloads that allow for time to meet with clients, investigate cases, and file appropriate motions.
5. Indigent Defense System Responsibility to Contract for Full Scope of Indigent Defense Services:
(a) Conflicts: Systems shall provide for conflict-free representation, by providing for a separate contract for conflict counsel
Utah Rule of Professional Conduct Rule 1.7, provides that a lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation involves a concurrent conflict of interest. A concurrent conflict of interest exists if:
i. The representation of one client will be directly adverse to another client; or
ii. There is a significant risk that the representation of one or more clients will be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person or by a personal interest of the lawyer.
(b) Systems shall provide contracts that separately account for indigent criminal defense, juvenile delinquency defense, and defense in Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Proceedings; and
(c) Systems shall ensure that accused personsin criminal cases are provided counsel at all critical stages, and that indigent parties in juvenile delinquency and Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency proceedings are provided counsel at all stages; and
(d) Systems shall provide separate contracts for appellate attorneysto ensure the right to appeal.
6. Attorney Performance Standards: If a System employs a contract-model for indigent defense services, those contracts should address counsel's particular obligations under the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct, including expectations on client communications and managing conflicts of interest.
The following Utah Rules of Professional Conduct are relevant to indigent defense contracts:
Rule 1.3. Diligence.
A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.
Rule 1.4. Communication.
A lawyer shall:
1. Promptly inform the client of any decision or circumstance with respect to which the client's informed consent, as defined in Rule 1.0(e), is required by these Rules;
2. Reasonably consult with the client about the means by which the client’s objectives are to be accomplished;
3. Keep the client reasonably informed about the status of the matter;
4. Promptly comply with reasonable requests for information;
5. Consult with the client about any relevant limitation on the lawyer’s conduct when the lawyer knows that the client expects assistance not permitted by the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law; and
6. Shall explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation.
7. Incentives: Service providers shall be fairly compensated and incentivized to represent clients fully through:
(a) Compensation shall be independent from prosecutors’ compensation;
(b) Incentives structured toeffectivelyrepresent indigent persons; and
(c) Contract provisions shall address legal training and education in the areas of the law relevant to the types of cases the service provider is contracted to appear on
(Utah Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1, requires competence: A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation).
(d) Compensation shall be sufficient to attract applicants qualified with adequate experience in the relevant areas of the law to provide effective representation in the defense of clients.
COOPERATION, OVERSIGHT, AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTSCooperation
A System applying for an IDC grant shall cooperate with and assist the IDC in the monitoring and reviewing indigent defense services in the System, including the reporting of any requested data or information by the IDC, inquiring into the practices of all attorneys engaged in providing indigent defense services in the System, and reviewing all aspects of the System’s indigent defense services.
Oversight
The System shall allow the IDC to maintain oversight sufficient to permit the IDC to collect data concerning attorney performance and local government administration, deemed necessary by the IDC to assist it in establishing performance, caseload, and other standards for courts of the state.
Quarterly Reporting Requirements
Acceptance of an IDC Critical Needs Grant, commits a System to reporting quarterly to the IDC in addition to supplying receipts of expenditures for reimbursement, in order to receive reimbursements from the IDC.
Such reports shall include: financial reports, progress reports, case tracking data, and any other data requested by the IDC. Quarterly reports shall be uploaded into the state Grant Management System (GMS) simultaneous with the invoices requesting grant reimbursements. *Training and assistance in using the GMS system is the responsibility of the IDC staff and will be provided to any successful grant applicant.
Revocation
The IDC may revoke a System's grant if the System fails to meet minimum principles for effective representation, or otherwise fails to comply with the terms and conditions incorporated into the contract entered into between the System and the IDC.
Please address each of the following to support your application for an IDC grant:
Ø Attach your most recent three years of contracts for indigent defense services.
Ø Set forth the System’s spending on indigent defense services for the past three budget years (whether calendar or fiscal), including the most current budget for indigent defense services. Include all indigent defense expenses, including but not limited to: contract expenses for adult criminal defense attorneys, juvenile delinquency defense attorneys, abuse, neglect, and dependency attorneys, conflict attorney contracts, any funds for experts, investigators, trial days, attorney staff, training, office space, etc.).
Ø Does the System contribute to the Indigent Capital Defense Trust Fund under Utah Code § 77-32-602?
Ø For Critical Needs Grants:
o Explain why an increase in the System’s current budget for indigent defense services would constitute an undue burden; and
o Explain how the grant money will achieve the effective assistance of counsel in all appointed cases by meeting or exceeding minimum principles for effective representation.