SENATE, No. 624

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 5, 1996

 

 

By Senator CAFIERO

 

 

An Act concerning municipal public defenders and supplementing Title 2B of the New Jersey Statutes.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    

    1. A municipality may enact an ordinance authorizing that any public defender employed by the municipality, or any counsel who is assigned cases in the municipal court and is paid by the municipality for such assignment, represent only those defendants who are residents of the State.

 

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill provides that any municipality which spends funds for attorneys to represent indigent defendants in its municipal court may provide that only State residents be represented by these attorneys. Out-of-State residents who are indigent would then be represented by assigned counsel on a pro bono basis, as ordered by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Madden v. Delran Tp., 126 N.J. 591 (1992).

    In Madden the Court held that, in order to ensure that indigent defendants receive adequate representation by counsel in municipal court, attorneys will be assigned to represent these defendants. The attorneys assigned under Madden do not receive compensation for their services. The Court held that, alternatively, a municipality may choose to hire a public defender to represent indigents in its own municipal court, or may choose to compensate the assigned counsel in that court, but that no municipality would be required to hire a public defender or to compensate the assigned counsel.

    Under the bill, a municipality which chooses to expend funds to compensate attorneys for representing indigent defendants may also choose to require that those attorneys only represent State residents.


                             

Allows municipalities to limit municipal public defender representation to State residents.