Gideon at 50: Rationing Justice: The Underfunding of Assigned Counsel Systems (Part 1)

This report documents the unreasonably low rates of compensation paid to private attorneys who represent indigent defendants in state courts. The lack of adequate funding restricts the pool of attorneys willing to represent indigent defendants and creates conflicts of interest for attorneys by encouraging them to limit the amount of work they perform on a case for an indigent client. [Released March 2013]