Union County taxpayers will be pleased to learn reimbursement money from the Public Defender Commission is going to Union County for the first time since 2002.  The commission is reimbursing $7,000 to the county for public defender costs, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard announced today.

In April 2008, Deborah Neal, a Public Defender Commission attorney, met with Union Circuit Court Judge Matthew Cox and told Judge Cox the county was eligible for reimbursement funds from the Public Defense Fund.  Neal explained, “The money is dedicated to helping counties pay for indigent defense services.  Not all counties apply for the money.”

Judge Cox immediately prepared a request for reimbursement and submitted it by the May deadline.   Judge Cox explained, “It’s vital to this county because we don’t have a lot of money, like a lot of counties, any reimbursement we get helps us tremendously.” 

The Public Defender Commission recently held its quarterly meeting and approved Union County’s Request for Reimbursement.  The $7,021.51 reimbursement from the Public Defender Commission is 40% of the county’s first quarter costs for public defense. 

Union County has been eligible to receive reimbursement money from the Public Defense Fund every year since 1999.  However, requests for reimbursements were only submitted from 1999-2002.  During that time, Union County received nearly $13,000.    

The Public Defender Commission was created by the legislature in 1989.  The commission distributes to qualifying counties 50% of the public defense costs in capital cases.  Qualifying counties may receive up to 40% in felony and juvenile cases.  It has delivered $62.1 million to Indiana counties for the costs of indigent criminal defense.  The PDC has funding to approve $14 million in reimbursement costs for fiscal year 2007-2008.  It has $15 million for 2008-2009.