The 77^th Legislature passed Senate Bill 7 creating the Texas Fair Defense Act. The Act provides how and when counsel must be appointed to represent indigent defendants. The judges of county and district courts trying criminal cases must adopt and publish written countywide procedures for timely and fairly appointing counsel in these cases. Copies of those countywide procedures must be submitted to the Office of Court Administration (OCA) no later than January 1, 2002.

The countywide procedures can be submitted to OCA as e-mail attachments.  Please include in your attachments the completed "County Indigent Defense Procedures Report - Cover Sheet" (this form is included under the Forms/Instructions button).  Send you e-mail to FairDefense@courts.state.tx.us.  In your e-mail please indicate the type of file (e.g., WordPerfect 5.0, WordPerfect 7.0, Word 2000, etc.).  Attach the file to the e-mail.  You will receive an acknowledgement via e-mail when your plan is received by the OCA.  Thank you for your assistance.

The Act also establishes a Task Force on Indigent Defense which will be formed and begin its work as soon as practical after January 1, 2002. The Task Force will develop policies and standards for providing legal representation and other defense services to indigent defendants. The policies developed by the Task Force will be drafted to ensure that the money appropriated for this biennium is allocated and distributed to counties in a fair manner. The purpose of this web page is to serve as a clearinghouse of information concerning the Fair Defense Act.