In 2021, Oakland County commissioned the 6th Amendment Center to conduct an extensive evaluation of our indigent defense system. Since the report was issued in October of 2022, Oakland County has implemented most of the recommendations, including:

• Creation of an employee-based Public Defender's Office;
• Discontinuation of flat-fee attorney payments and implementation of hourly fees;
• Discontinuation of attorney-fee reimbursement orders in the District and Circuit courts;
• Plans to limit attorney workloads in compliance with MIDC Standard 6

The full report is available here.