Issues examined during a Program Evaluation may include:

• Organization
• Staffing
• Hiring and recruiting practices.
• Training (in-house; external opportunities); training/mentoring new attorneys
• Leadership systems
• Attorney case load and overload issues
• Stress related issues
• Effectiveness/ineffectiveness of representation
• Performance guidelines and standards
• Performance management and performance appraisal
• Death penalty and major case handling
• Representation of juveniles
• Use of support, investigator & paraprofessional staff
• Offices systems/support systems
• Technology implementation
• Office management
• Fiscal management/budgeting
• Personnel management/staffing decisions
• Cost recovery and revenue generation
• Client financial screening
• Relationships with other criminal justice agencies
• Intergovernmental relations
• Relations with private bar
• Conflicts policies

General Structure Of NLADA Program Evaluations

Audits are based upon established national standards for the operation of public defender offices, including NLADA's national Guidelines for Legal Defense Systems in the United States, promulgated over a two-year period by the National Study Commission on Defense Services, a project established by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in the U.S. Department of Justice and staffed by NLADA. These standards are augmented by more recent standards governing defender training, attorney performance requirements, and death penalty cases, as well as the American Bar Association s Standards for Criminal Justice, including Providing Defense Services (3rd ed., 1992).

There are generally four stages of a NLADA program audit:

Stage 1: Preparation. Gather documents from site, including documentation of the program s organization and staffing, budgets, caseload statistics, and materials from executive and legislative officials as well as judicial, court administration and prosecution agencies. Prepare interview instruments, list of interviewees, and interview protocol and schedule for site visit. Coordinate interview schedule with program and other staff.

Stage 2: Pre-site visit. On-site interviews and gathering of additional materials, to frame and focus issues, and to help prepare a full interview agenda, for the site visit.

Stage 3: Site visit. Utilizing structured interview forms, audit team members interview key players in the local criminal justice system, including judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, defender staff, legislative and executive branch officials, former defender clients, jail officials, and members of the private bar; and observe court sessions. Review information management systems, sampling of case files.

Stage 4: Report preparation. Compile results from interviews and reviews of documents and other materials. Prepare findings and recommendations. Tabulate staff survey results, with narrative analysis.

An audit may include a 75-question survey of all employees of a program, soliciting perceptions and attitudes about the mission and philosophy of the office, supervision and the PDO organizational culture, staff members work and assignments, PDO work processes, training and professional development, intra-office communications and other issues relating to organization and structure.

For more information, contact NLADA's Department of Defender Services.