TITLE 1. ADMINISTRATION

DIVISION 2. APPLICATION OF STANDARDS AND CONTRACTING PROCEDURES

1 TAC §174.11

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) is a permanent Standing Committee of the Texas Judicial Council. TIDC adopts the amendment to §174.11, concerning Contract Defender Program Requirements. The amended section is adopted without changes to the proposed text as published in the July 18, 2025 issue of the Texas Register (50 TexReg 4079). The rule will not be republished.

EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENT

The adopted amendment to §174.11 requires the court or courts to specify the maximum annual appointed caseloads or workloads for contract defender programs of one week or less in the indigent defense plan.  The amendment is adopted because the TIDC finds recurring short-term contracts, often called term assignment systems, to a small number of attorneys lead to an uneven distribution of appointments among available attorneys, as well as excessive caseloads. The adopted amendment is intended to reduce excessive attorney caseloads and lead to a fairer distribution of appointments.

The following comments were received regarding the adoption of the amendments.

Comment: The Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at SMU’s Dedman School of Law supported the proposed amendment. The Center further recommended TIDC go further than the proposed amendment and set uniform statewide maximum attorney caseloads based on the Texas Weighted Caseload Guidelines, rather than leaving limits to individual counties. The Center referred to the fact that TIDC already requires counties accepting certain TIDC grants to follow the caseload limits in the Texas Weighted Caseload Guidelines.

Response: TIDC notes the commenters support for the proposed amendment and also TIDC’s intention to research the impact of establishing rules for caseload standards for all contract systems and other indigent defense systems.

Comment: The National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) supported the proposed amendment. NAPD further recommended TIDC to adopt the amendment with a specific cap of 128 felony cases per year, as used by the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, to better protect clients’ rights and ensure ethical representation.

Response:  TIDC notes the commenters support for the proposed amendment and also TIDC’s intention to research the impact of establishing rules for caseload standards for all contract systems and other indigent defense systems.

Comment: Stephen Hanlon commented that TIDC should go beyond the proposed amendment and instead adopt the National Public Defense Workload Standards to impose maximum workload standards statewide in all appointed cases with a multi-year phase in.

Response: TIDC intends to research the impact of establishing rules for caseload standards for all contract systems and other indigent defense systems.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

The amendment is adopted under Texas Government Code §79.034(a-1)(8), which authorizes TIDC to develop policies and standards for providing legal representation to indigent defendants under a contract defender program.

No other statutes, articles, or codes are affected by the adopted amendment.

The agency certifies that legal counsel has reviewed the adoption and found it to be a valid exercise of the agency's legal authority.

Filed with the Office of the Secretary of State on September 15, 2025.

TRD-202503263

Wesley Shackelford

Deputy Director

Texas Judicial Council

Effective date: October 5, 2025

Proposal publication date: July 18, 2025

For further information, please call: (737) 279-9208

---