This seems like a no-brainer. A new study out of Harvard has found that public defenders that work on a salary cost the public less that public defenders that work by the hour. Duh. By the hour lawyers tend to let cases drag on an average of 8 months longer. Appointed lawyers also cost taxpayers $61 million a year more than salaried public defenders would have cost.

‘There are many possible reasons for the differences in performance. Salaried public defenders generally handle more cases and have more interactions with prosecutors, so they may have a better sense of what they can negotiate for their clients. Salaried lawyers also tend to have superior credentials and more legal experience, the study found.”

“The study will add a new layer to the debate over the nation’s indigent defense systems. In 1963, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that poor people accused of serious crimes were entitled to legal representation paid for by the government.”
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