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31.030 Authority and duties of department.
The authority and duties of the Department of Public Advocacy shall include but are
not limited to:
(1) Administering the statewide public advocacy system created by this chapter or
by any other appropriate legislation or court decision;
(2) Providing technical aid to local counsel representing indigent persons;
(3) Assisting local counsel on appeals or taking appeals for local counsel, in the
same manner as such appeals for the Commonwealth are presently handled
by the Attorney General;
(4) Developing and promulgating standards and administrative regulations, rules,
and procedures for administration of the defense of indigent defendants in
criminal cases that the public advocate, statutes, or the courts determine are
subject to public assistance;
(5) Determining necessary personnel for the department and appointing staff
attorneys, who shall be "assistant public advocates," and non-lawyer assistants
within the merit system, subject to available funding and employee allotments;
(6) Maintaining and exercising control over the department's information
technology system, and working with the Commonwealth Office of Technology
to ensure that the department's information technology is in conformity with the
requirements of state government;
(7) Reviewing and approving local plans for providing counsel for indigent
persons;
(8) Conducting research into, and developing and implementing methods of,
improving the operation of the criminal justice system with regard to indigent
defendants and other defendants in criminal actions, including participation in
groups, organizations, and projects dedicated to improving representation of
defendants in criminal actions in particular, or the interests of indigent or
impoverished persons in general;
(9) Issuing rules, promulgating administrative regulations, and establishing
standards as may be reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions of this
chapter, the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, the decisions of the
Kentucky Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and other applicable court
decisions or statutes;
(10) Being authorized to pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate
remedies to ensure the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities;
(11) Being authorized to purchase liability insurance for the protection of all full-time
public advocates, deputy public advocates, and assistant public advocates to
protect them from liability for malpractice arising in the course or scope of
employment and for the protection of attorneys with whom the Department of
Public Advocacy contracts to protect them from liability for malpractice arising
in the course or scope of the contract;
(12) Being authorized to seek and apply for and solicit funds for the operation of the
defense of indigent persons or protection of the persons with disabilities
programs from any source, public or private, and to receive donations, grants,
awards, and similar funds from any legal source. Those funds shall be placed
in a special account for the Department of Public Advocacy and those funds
shall not lapse;
(13) Being authorized to assign an attorney, including a conflict attorney under a
plan, for good cause, at any stage of representation, including trial, appeal, or
other post-conviction or post-disposition proceeding, including discharge
revocation hearings, preliminary parole revocation hearings, and conditional
discharge revocation hearings, regardless of whether the hearings are
conducted by constitutional judges or executive branch administrative law
judges;
(14) Filing with the Legislative Research Commission an annual report, by
September 30 of each year, setting forth the total number of cases assigned to
the department, the average number of cases per department attorney, all
funding available to the department, the average amount of state funds
expended per assigned case, and any other information requested by the
Legislative Research Commission or that the public advocate finds necessary
to inform the General Assembly, the judicial or executive branches, or the
public of the activities conducted by the department during the previous fiscal
year; and
(15) Do other activities and institute other programs as necessary to carry out the
provisions of this chapter, or those decisions or statutes which are the subject
of this section.
Effective:July 15, 2014
History: Amended 2014 Ky. Acts ch. 87, sec. 2, effective July 15, 2014. -Amended 2012 Ky. Acts ch. 151, sec. 4, effective July 12, 2012. -- Amended
2002 Ky. Acts ch. 283, sec. 3, effective July 15, 2002. -- Amended 1978 Ky.
Acts ch. 155, sec. 21, effective June 17, 1978. -- Amended 1976 (1st Extra.
Sess.) Ky. Acts ch. 14, sec. 8. -- Created 1972 Ky. Acts ch. 353, sec. 3.
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