The county is looking to step up the quality of court-appointed legal services it provides to area defendants, in line with new standards from the state.

Cass County Chief Judge Susan Dobrich and her staff are developing a plan to meet the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission’s new guidelines, which were approved by the department of licensing and regulatory affairs in May. Cass, along with every other county in the state, is required to submit compliance plans and cost projections detailing how their jurisdiction will meet the new standards to the MIDC by Nov. 20.

The four new standards are as follows:

• Increased education: ensuring that court-appointed defense attorneys are properly trained.

• Ensuring counsel is provided to defendants by first appearance in court: the county will look to provide court-appointed attorneys to local defendants before they are arraigned in district court.

• Initial client interview: the county will ensure that indigent defense attorneys meet with their clients within 72 hours of arrest.

• Use of investigation and experts: the county will provide an investigator or money for an investigator to defense attorneys and their clients. This is intended to bring parity with the prosecutor’s office, which has access to law enforcement investigators for cases.

In addition to developing plans, Cass County must also calculate how much money will be necessary to meet the goals, Dobrich said. This amount will be determined by calculating the average costs the county spent in 2011, 2012 and 2013 on indigent defense services, and compare that to the rate the county currently spends.

“We spend more now,” the judge said during a recent presentation to the county board of commissioners. “We discussed this when set out to increase the contract [of indigent defense services last year]. We knew that would go to our benefit, and it did. Many counties who saw the MIDC requirements coming actually cut their indigent costs.”

Since Cass County is already paying more for defense services, the courts will be able to apply for grant funding to the state to cover many of the MIDC’s requirements, Dobrich said.

The county is already covering some of the new standards, especially when it comes to providing educational opportunities to defense attorneys under contract, the judge said.

“[Our] defense attorneys have already gone to conferences in Washington, Anaheim and Lansing,” she said. “We also provide education at lunch. We buy pizza and sit down with the attorneys every Wednesday. We should meet the educational standards without any additional costs.”

The courts have already began working on meeting the 72-hour meeting requirement as well, working with the sheriff’s office to ensure that requests for attorneys are being issued in a timely manner, and that information is accurate and legible to attorneys, Dobrich said. The investigator costs should be covered through funds the board had set aside for the courts in the budget.

The bulk of the costs will be to provide defendants with attorneys for district court arraignments, which has never been required before, Dobrich said. A committee set up by the judge to look into costs associated with the program came back with a figure of $50,000, though the judge believes this figure may be higher than it will actually cost.

Dobrich said the county will apply for state grant funding to cover the costs, though she is skeptical whether or not the state will have money available for the program by the time the November deadline passes, she said.

The courts will submit their finalized plans to the commissioners for approval before forwarding it to Lansing, Dobrich said.