MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.
Gov. Jay Nixon has proposed cutting $3.4 million from the Office of the State Public Defender’s budget.
Tagged with: Missouri's Public Defender System
Read More »Top Stories of 2009: Ups and downs for public defenders over the past year
After just a few months at law school at Saint Louis University, Matt Melton knew he wanted to be a public defender. As he neared graduation he sent his one and only job application to the Missouri State Public Defender’s ...
Tagged with: Missouri's Public Defender System
Read More »Task force to tackle justice funding
Two past bar presidents, several prosecutors and public defenders, one judge and one former lawmaker make up the Criminal Justice Task Force, which will study prosecutor and public defender funding problems and come up with solutions for the Legislature.
Tagged with: Joe Moseley Missouri's Public Defender System Skip Walther
Read More »High court ponders problems with defenders’ refusing cases
Price says refusal could amount to ‘prosecutorial decision'
Karl Meyer, a Saint Louis University law student and intern with the St. Louis Public Defenders office, interviews a potential client to determine his indigency status last week. Interns help with this process to free up public defenders to work on their cases.
The burden of the public defenders' case load was the subject of a Missouri Supreme Court case heard Tuesday in Jefferson City.
Tagged with: Missouri's Public Defender System Spangenberg Group
Read More »‘One-fourth of not enough’
Public defenders get fraction of promised stimulus funds
Kathleen Lear, comptroller of the Missouri Public Defender System, gives her report on the budget to the Public Defender Commission during the annual Missouri Bar Conference in St. Louis on Sept. 25. The state's public defender system will likely receive only $500,000 of the $2 million in federal recovery funds allocated to the beleaguered system by the state Legislature.
Tagged with: Missouri's Public Defender System
Read More »Little advice for those facing lack of jobs
A young woman stepped up to the microphone in a St. Louis convention room Thursday and with a quick question illustrated what a panel of legal leaders had been opining about for more than an hour. A formal discussion on ...
Tagged with: Cathy Kelly Melissa Pantazopoulos Missouri's Public Defender System Wendy Werner
Read More »Veto of defender caseload bill will stand
Lawmakers passed bill handily, but an override attempt is unlikely this week
The Senate sponsor of vetoed legislation aimed at establishing a caseload cap for public defenders said it was unlikely that he would try to bring back the measure this week. Although Sen. Jack Goodman's bill supporting the Public Defender System passed easily in both chambers, he won’t ask lawmakers to override the governor’s veto.
Tagged with: Missouri's Public Defender System
Read More »Supreme Court denies writ seeking aid for public defenders
The Missouri Supreme Court has denied a writ asking for the court to address problems with the Missouri Public Defender System. Attorney L. Steven Goldblatt, of the Goldblatt Law Firm, filed the emergency writ of petition for habeas corpus Wednesday ...
Tagged with: Missouri Supreme Court Missouri's Public Defender System Steven Goldblatt
Read More »Court budget spared the ax; for how long?
Gov. Jay Nixon has spared the judiciary and the public defender system from any line-item vetoes. But the governor's budget chief said the judiciary won't necessarily be shielded from another round of state employee layoffs. Nixon announced on Thursday morning that he had vetoed $105 million from the fiscal year 2010 budget, which takes effect on July 1. In addition, Nixon said $325 million in spending will be withheld until revenues improve. However, Nixon basically refrained from vetoing items related to either the judiciary or the public defender's office.
Tagged with: Jay Nixon Missouri's Public Defender System
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