Publications
Read annual reports and standards published by the Indiana Public Defender Commission. GO

OPINION: ABA Formal Opinion 06-441
During 2006, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion 06-441, regarding the “Ethical Obligations of Lawyers Who Represent Indigent Criminal Defendants When Excessive Caseloads Interfere With Competent and Diligent Representation.”

As a special service to the public defender community, the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility provides Formal Opinion 06-441 without charge and without requiring that a person be an ABA member. Pursuant to agreement with the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants will authorize duplication of multiple copies of ABA Formal Opinion 06-441 for non-profit purposes. Requests for duplication of copies should be addressed to Georgia Vagenas at vagenasg@staff.abanet.org

ARTICLE: Restraining Excessive Defender Caseloads: The ABA Ethics Committee Requires Action
The Champion Magazine, December 2006
By: Professor Norman Lefstein (Chairman, Indiana Public Defender Commission) and Georgia Vagenas (Assistant Staff Counsel, ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants)
“The ABA ethics opinion should be understood as a call to action by both individual defenders burdened with excessive caseloads, as well as by supervisors and heads of defender programs.”