Background

The Settlement reached in Hurrell-Harring v. State of NY, 15 N.Y.3d 8, 20 (2010) requires New York State and the five defendant counties to improve the delivery of public defense services in four key areas: 1) Counsel at Arraignment; 2) Caseload Relief; 3) Initiatives to Improve the Quality of Indigent Defense; and 4) Eligibility Standards for Representation. ILS is responsible for working with the counties to implement the obligations found in the Settlement, including the development of implementation plans in each of the four key areas, working with counties to operationalize those plans, monitoring their effectiveness, and submitting compliance and progress reports to the parties.

Information pertaining to each of the four key areas and ILS’s role in implementation can be found here.