Equitable Defense: Holistic Defense for Court-Appointed Counsel Cases

This position paper reviews the research on disparities in justice system outcomes based on whether a person is represented by a public defender or by court-appointed private counsel finding that court-appointed counsel achieve less favorable outcomes due largely to differences in compensation and resources available to them. The paper also reviews the literature on the effectiveness of holistic defense and suggests that differences in defense quality will widen as more public defender’s offices adopt a holistic defense approach. Finally, the paper provides information from interviews with San Francisco system stakeholders and makes the case for equal access to trained social workers on defense teams whether a person is represented by a public defender or court-appointed private counsel.