Board of Trustees: Minimum Standards, Rules, and Procedures

The Board of Trustees shall promulgate and implement minimum standards, rules, and procedures to guarantee indigent persons effective assistance of counsel as provided under the Organic Act of Guam, the laws of Guam, and the United States Constitution. The minimum standards, rules, and procedures shall apply to all public legal services providers. Such standards, rules, and procedures, shall be guided by the following principles:

(a)The delivery of public legal services shall be independent of judicial and political influence.

(b)Public legal services providers’ ability, training, and experience shall match the nature and complexity of the case appointed.

(c)Public legal services providers shall attend initial and annual training relevant to the types of cases on which they provide representation. CH. 11 GUAM PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICE CORPORATION ACT

(d)Public legal services providers’ workloads shall be controlled to permit sufficient time and resources to represent every indigent client. Procedures shall be established for the Corporation to decline cases due to excessive workload.

(e)Public legal services providers shall be appointed immediately after arrest, detention, or upon request and shall confer with their client prior to the next court appearance.

(f)Waiver of the right to counsel shall not be coerced or encouraged. Before a person may waive counsel, they must be provided a meaningful opportunity to confer with a public legal services provider.

(g)Barring conflicts of interest, the same public legal services provider or Division shall continuously represent and personally appear at every court appearance throughout the pendency of the case.

(h)Each indigent person shall receive a public legal services provider who is free of conflicts of interest as early as possible in the case.

(i)Public legal services providers shall be provided space where attorney-client confidentiality is safeguarded for meetings with clients.

(j)Public legal services providers shall be compensated at a rate that does not discourage, disincentivize, or impair the provider’s ability to provide effective representation. No public legal services provider shall be paid a flat fee in exchange for legal representation services. Government employed public legal services providers shall be compensated at a rate comparable to other publicly funded attorneys and should not be compensated less than prosecutors. Private attorneys should be paid at a rate that reflects the cost of overhead and other office expenses, as well as payment for work.

(k)Public legal services providers shall have clear procedures for obtaining experts, investigators, social workers, interpreters, secretaries, paralegals, and resources for cases that do not discourage, disincentivize, or impair the provider’s ability to provide effective representation.

(l)Public legal services providers shall be systematically reviewed for effective representation according to the Corporation’s standards.

(m)Public legal services providers shall provide requested data to the Corporation.