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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Lundstrom
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
1/31/07
HB 458
SHORT TITLE Limit Public Defender Contracts
SB
ANALYST Wilson
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
Unknown Unknown
Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Public Defender Department (PDD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Bill 458 limits the amount that the PDD may pay a legal entity in any twelve-month
contract period to $300,000.
The limitation set forth in this bill does not apply to or limit the ongoing representation of a
client by a legal entity once an attorney-client relationship has been established between that
legal entity and that client.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The PDD claims that if a contract attorney’s business is limited, the PDD may be forced to send
staff attorneys to outlying districts, thus incurring travel and other expenses for which there have
been no funds budgeted.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
The PDD is concerned that there may be instances in the judicial districts where there are no
public defender offices and this bill will limit the ability of a legal entity to take on additional
clients in need of representation.