Tompkins County Legislature approves new 5-year contract to aid indigent representation

ITHACA — The Tompkins County Legislature on Sept. 19 approved a five-year performance-based contract awarded to the Tompkins County Assigned Counsel Office by the New York State Office of Indigent Legal Services. 

Over the five-year period, the contract will provide more than $2.5 million to support programming and representation through assigned counsel. The focus is to improve the ability of the office to ensure quality mandated representation to its clients. The contract is the first step in New York State’s expansion of the Hurrell Haring Settlement (initially affecting only five New York target counties) to all counties in New York State; the goal is to seek to “remedy a decades-old imbalance in support to mandated representation in the state and to address issues of lack of resources to ensure the quality of mandated representation in New York,” according to a news release from the Tompkins County Legislature.

The first-year allocation is nearly $170,000, with increases each year in the areas of quality improvement and caseload relief. 

“The focus in implementation of the contract will be on increased training for attorneys, increased supervision, monitoring and support to the attorneys, the use of support or expert services by the attorney in the case, and the buildup of supports for trial and client support,” Lance Salisbury, supervising attorney of the Tompkins County Assigned Counsel Office, stated in briefing materials submitted to the Tompkins County Legislature. “In addition, we are looking at potential collaborative efforts with surrounding counties that will strengthen our support services to attorneys and potentially allow us to build and strengthen our panel of attorneys.”

The legislature approved the measure by a unanimous vote, with two legislators (Henry Granison and Leslyn McBean-Clairborne) excused from the vote.