                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

VIRGINIA INDIGENT DEFENSE COMMISSION ESTABLISHED; POWERS AND DUTIES (§
19.2-163.01)

A. The Virginia Indigent Defense Commission (hereinafter Indigent Defense
Commission or Commission) is established. The Commission shall be supervisory
and shall have sole responsibility for the powers, duties, operations, and
responsibilities set forth in this section.
			The Commission shall have the following powers and duties:

   1. To publicize and enforce the qualification standards for attorneys seeking
   eligibility to serve as court-appointed counsel for indigent defendants
   pursuant to &#xA7; 19.2-159.

   2. To develop initial training courses for attorneys who wish to begin serving
   as court-appointed counsel, and to review and certify legal education courses
   that satisfy the continuing requirements for attorneys to maintain their
   eligibility for receiving court appointments.

   3. To maintain a list of attorneys admitted to practice law in Virginia who
   are qualified to serve as court-appointed counsel for indigent defendants
   based upon the official standards and to disseminate the list by July 1 of
   each year and updates throughout the year to the Office of the Executive
   Secretary of the Supreme Court for distribution to the courts. In establishing
   and updating the list, the Commission shall consider all relevant factors,
   including but not limited to, the attorney&#8217;s background, experience, and
   training and the Commission&#8217;s assessment of whether the attorney is
   competent to provide quality legal representation.

   4. To establish official standards of practice for court-appointed counsel and
   public defenders to follow in representing their clients, and guidelines for
   the removal of an attorney from the official list of those qualified to
   receive court appointments and to notify the Office of the Executive Secretary
   of the Supreme Court of any attorney whose name has been removed from the
   list.

   5. To develop initial training courses for public defenders and to review and
   certify legal education courses that satisfy the continuing requirements for
   public defenders to maintain their eligibility.

   6. To periodically review and report to the Virginia State Crime Commission,
   the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice, the House Committee on
   Appropriations, and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations on the
   caseload handled by each public defender office.

   7. To maintain all public defender offices established by the General
   Assembly.

   8. To hire and employ and, at its pleasure, remove an executive director,
   counsel, and such other persons as it deems necessary, and to authorize the
   executive director to appoint, after prior notice to the Commission, a deputy
   director, and for each of the above offices a public defender who shall devote
   his full time to his duties and not engage in the private practice of law.

   9. To authorize the public defender to employ such assistants as authorized by
   the Commission.

   10. To authorize the public defender to employ such staff, including
   secretarial and investigative personnel, as may be necessary to carry out the
   duties imposed upon the public defender office.

   11. To authorize the executive director of the Commission, in consultation
   with the public defender to secure such office space as needed, to purchase or
   rent office equipment, to purchase supplies and to incur such expenses as are
   necessary to carry out the duties imposed upon him.

   12. To approve requests for appropriations and receive and expend moneys
   appropriated by the General Assembly of Virginia, to receive other moneys as
   they become available to it and expend the same in order to carry out the
   duties imposed upon it.

   13. To require and ensure that each public defender office collects and
   maintains caseload data and fields in a case management database on an annual
   basis.

   14. To report annually on or before October 1 to the Virginia State Crime
   Commission, the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice, the House
   Committee on Appropriations, and the Senate Committee on Finance and
   Appropriations on the state of indigent criminal defense in the Commonwealth,
   including Virginia&#8217;s ranking amongst the 50 states in terms of pay
   allowed for court-appointed counsel appointed pursuant to &#xA7; 19.2-159 or
   subdivision C 2 of &#xA7; 16.1-266.

B. The Commission shall adopt rules and procedures for the conduct of its
business. The Commission may delegate to the executive director or, in the
absence of the executive director, the deputy executive director, such powers
and duties conferred upon the Commission as it deems appropriate, including
powers and duties involving the exercise of discretion. The Commission shall
ensure that the executive director complies with all Commission and statutory
directives. Such rules and procedures may include the establishment of
committees and the delegation of authority to the committees. The Commission
shall review and confirm by a vote of the Commission its rules and procedures
and any delegation of authority to the executive director at least every three
years.

C. The executive director shall, with the approval of the Commission, fix the
compensation of each public defender and all other personnel in each public
defender office. The executive director shall also exercise and perform such
other powers and duties as may be lawfully delegated to him and such powers and
duties as may be conferred or imposed upon him by law.

HISTORY: 2004, cc. 884, 921; 2005, c. 230; 2006, cc. 429, 501; 2007, c. 371;
2008, cc. 536, 815; 2010, c. 314; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, cc. 344, 345.