Cayuga County Assigned Counsel for the Indigent Program

Article 18-B of the County Law requires Cayuga County to choose one of several systems for providing public defense services. An Assigned Counsel Plan developed by the Cayuga County Bar Association and administered by the County was selected as the method of providing legal counsel to those persons who are deemed indigent. The Administrator and Deputy Administrator of the Assigned Counsel program are responsible for implementing a method of assigning private legal counsel, on a rotating basis, to persons accused of a crime who are financially unable to obtain counsel. In addition to providing legal counsel to indigent persons charged with a crime, indigent parolees are entitled to court appointed counsel in proceedings brought to revoke their parole. Cayuga County is required to appoint counsel for parolees at revocation hearings and to handle appeals from unfavorable parole release or revocation decisions. The Assigned Counsel Plan is utilized by twenty-six attorneys and forty-seven judges with assignments of over thirteen hundred cases and the processing of over twelve hundred vouchers.