2006 Louisiana Laws - RS 15:146 — Judicial district indigent defender fund

§146.  Judicial district indigent defender fund

A.  There is hereby created within each judicial district an indigent defender fund which shall be administered by the district board and composed of funds provided for by this Section and such funds as may be appropriated or otherwise made available to it.

B.(1)  Every court of original criminal jurisdiction, except in the town of Jonesville, in the city of Plaquemine, and in mayors' courts in municipalities having a population of less than five thousand, shall remit the following special costs to the district indigent defender fund for the following violations, under state statute as well as under parish or municipal ordinance, except a parking violation.  The sum of thirty-five dollars shall be assessed in cases in which a defendant is convicted after a trial, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or after forfeiting bond, and shall be in addition to all other fines, costs, or forfeitures imposed.

(2)  Such amounts shall be remitted by the respective recipients thereof to the judicial district indigent defender fund monthly by the tenth day of the succeeding month.

C.  In addition to the funds provided for in Subsection B hereof the state shall pay to each district indigent defender board, on the warrant of its chairman, the sum of ten thousand dollars per annum.

D.  The funds provided for in this Section and all interest or other income earned from the investment of such funds shall be used and administered by the district board.

E.  No defendant who has retained private counsel of record shall be assessed any costs to be credited to the indigent defender fund, other than the special costs established by Subsection B of this Section, unless the indigent defender board has provided representation of record for that defendant at some point in that criminal proceeding.

Added by Acts 1976, No. 653, §1; Amended by Acts 1977, No. 362, §1; Acts 1980, No. 458, §1; Acts 1980, No. 530, §1; Acts 1981, No. 141, §1; Acts 1981, No. 177, §1; Acts 1981, No. 281, §1; Acts 1983, No. 649, §1, eff. July 20, 1983; Acts 1984, No. 379, §1; Acts 1985, No. 764, §1; Acts 1988, No. 315, §1; Acts 1990, No. 1044, §1; Acts 1991, No. 549, §1; Acts 1995, No. 1286, §1; Acts 1999, No. 914, §1; Acts 1999, No. 1187, §2; Acts 2001, No. 283, §1; Acts 2005, No. 112, §1; Acts 2005, No. 343, §1.