Travis County test runs counsel at first appearance

Brianna Hollis
·2 min read

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Currently, arrestees in Travis County don’t always have an attorney with them at their first court appearance.

According to the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, ensuring attorneys early on can reduce jail populations and save taxpayers money by reducing criminal justice costs.

Travis County supports the idea of this prospect – which is called “counsel at first appearance” or CAFA – but so far, staffing, infrastructure and procedural challenges have hindered its implementation.

Bradley Hargis and reporter.
Bradley Hargis with the Capital Area Private Defender Service worked with arrestees at the test shift Tuesday.

So the team launched a new pilot Tuesday that provided the space and resources for these arrestees to have the chance to meet with a lawyer before facing a judge.

“We have a private defender service and a public defender service, both of which are representing clients, we’re splitting it basically 50/50 today,” Bradley Hargis with the Capital Area Private Defender Service said. He worked the pilot all afternoon and evening Tuesday and stepped out to speak with us about CAFA. “The challenges are mainly logistical, everyone agrees in principle.”

The pilot ran from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday. Another session will take place Thursday.

“The advantage for both the client and the community is that you have a prosecutor AND a defense attorney giving the judge the best possible information. So whether it’s what’s the client’s home life like… but also the prosecutors are being heard on their safety concerns,” Hargis said.

Travis County could not provide comment on the test shift process Tuesday.

ACLU sues Travis County over issues with counsel at first appearance

About two weeks ago, the ACLU of Texas sued Travis County for allegedly denying people the right to legal counsel.

A county spokesperson said Tuesday’s pilot was not a result of the lawsuit and had been in the works for a while.

The ACLU claims the lack of counsel at first appearance can result in arrestees providing information that could hurt their case.

An Austin defense attorney KXAN spoke with said judges in town are fair and wouldn’t let such statements be used in any sort of trial.

You can read more about the ACLU’s lawsuit here in our previous coverage.

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