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Detroit council hears law department briefing on indigent defense caseloads, uncertainty over reverse-conviction exposure
Summary
At a law department budget hearing, corporation counsel outlined caseloads, funding and limits on predicting costs tied to reverse-conviction claims; council moved to discuss indigent defense in executive session.
Conrad Mallett, corporation counsel for the city of Detroit, told the City Council during a budget hearing that the city’s indigent defense programs handle large volumes of work and that total program costs and future reverse-conviction exposure are difficult to predict.
Mallett said the city’s Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC)–funded program reports high activity: the law department described 56,062 arraignments and other large case counts handled in the program and said total attorney hours for one reporting period were about 68,000 spread among roughly 80 attorneys. He told the council the overall indigent defense program costs are about $5.5 million a year, of which about $5.0 million is…
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