Public Defense

An appeals court in Louisiana reversed class certification of 13 people charged with non-capital offenses who were appointed counsel because they couldn’t afford an attorney, finding that they failed to satisfy commonality and typicality requirements. The class complained that Louisiana’s public defense system fails to provide effective representation to indigent defendants.

BATON ROUGE, La. — An appeals court in Louisiana reversed class certification of 13 people charged with noncapital offenses who were appointed counsel because they couldn’t afford an attorney, finding that they failed to satisfy commonality and typicality requirements. The class complained that Louisiana’s public defense system fails to provide effective representation to indigent defendants.

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