§174. Special reporting requirements; penalties
A. In addition to the general oversight requirements provided by law, each district
shall submit an annual report to the office no later than February first of each year,
commencing in 2009. The report, using the uniform definition of a "case" as defined in
Subsection C of this Section, shall include detailed information of the workload, resources,
employees, and expenditures for each district for the previous fiscal year. The report shall
also include the number of Families in Need of Services (FINS) petitions, Child in Need of
Care (CINC) petitions, and child support petitions handled by each district.
B.(1) The district public defender shall be responsible for preparing, completing, and
submitting the annual report to the office as provided for in Subsection A of this Section.
(2) The district public defender shall be subject to the penalties provided for in
Paragraph (3) of this Subsection, payable out of the judicial district indigent defender fund,
if any of the following occur:
(a) The failure to file a report.
(b) The failure to timely file a report.
(c) The failure to disclose or accurately disclose any required information.
(d) The filing of a false report.
(3) The amount of the penalty shall be one hundred dollars for each day until the
report or the required accurate information is filed.
C. For purposes of this Section, a "case" is defined as a charge or set of charges
contained in a charging instrument or petition against a single accused arising out of one or
more events, transactions, or occurrences, which are joined, or which may be joined pursuant
to Code of Criminal Procedure Articles 490 through 495.1. Cases that involve multiple
persons accused are counted as a separate case for each person accused. Cases that involve
multiple charges or counts are recorded with the highest charge, based on the severity of
sentence for the crime charged, as the case type. Multiple charges against a single person for
the issuing of worthless checks shall be counted as a single case. Each appeal, after
conviction, shall be counted as a separate case. In the event that a charging instrument
contains a charge or set of charges arising out of multiple events, transactions, or
occurrences, indigent defender boards shall track, record, and report the number of such
instances per charging instrument.
Acts 2007, No. 307, §1; Acts 2024, 2nd Ex. Sess., No. 22, §1, eff. March 20, 2024.