New legislation was introduced last week which aims to update the State Public Defenders eligibility standards in hopes of saving taxpayer dollars.

Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, and Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, are working together to help the state better their SPD standards, while also updating the current SPD 1987 system standards.

"The court system at some level has indicated that updating the public defender eligibility standard has been a priority for them for a long time and people have described it as reaching a crisis state, in the terms that people are not being able to get representation when they have been charged with a criminal act," said Kyle Leighton, spokesperson for Sullivan.

In a release last week, Bies and Sullivan said Wisconsin has a growing gap between those who are eligible for and those who have to go without representation.

"A fair trial depends on representation for the participants, and it is up to our justice system to provide that representation when needed," Bies said in a statement. "This legislation is vital for our justice system to properly serve all Wisconsin citizens."

Currently, when someone is charged with a crime and cannot afford a lawyer, Leighton said they can either have a SPD, or if they don’t qualify for an SPD, the county court has to appoint a lawyer, which is ultimately at the county’s expense and thus, taxpayers are footing the bill.

"The last data they actually collected was at 70 counties in Wisconsin over the last biennium, and they paid about $4.6 million in reimbursement for lawyers," Leighton said. "Under this legislation, the attempt is to faze out the idea for counties paying for attorneys and instead have state public defenders taking that load off them and being able to represent over 15,000 new cases."

If passed, the bill would go into effect in the 2009-10 fiscal year and would not affect costs in the current biennium.

Bipartisan legislators have provided very positive feedback on the bill, as well as county governments and the state court system.

Legislators, judges and lawyers within the court system have taken a great interest in this bill with the idea to protect citizens and ensure everyone a fair trial, Leighton said.

The new program’s projected cost is approximately $4.3 million in 2010 and $4.6 million per year thereafter, however, according to Bies and Sullivan, it will largely be offset by savings in county budgets due to fewer court appointments at county expense.