Commissioners Court - Regular Session

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23.

Meeting Date:	05/19/2015
Recognize the Williamson County Attorney’s office
Submitted For:	D. Hobbs	Submitted By:	Peggy Vasquez, County Attorney
Department:	County Attorney
Agenda Category:	Regular Agenda Items

Information

Agenda Item

Discuss and take appropriate action regarding recognizing the Williamson County Attorney’s office for being “the most praised discovery processes” in THE COST OF COMPLIANCE: A Look at the Fiscal Impact and Process Changes of the Michael Morton Act.

Background

THE COST OF COMPLIANCE: A Look at the Fiscal Impact and Process Changes of the Michael Morton Act is a study which was prepared for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association through funding from the State Bar of Texas’ Criminal Justice Section.

“This study used survey and focus group methodologies to examine the fiscal impacts associated with implementation of the Michael Morton Act, as well as the policy changes that contributed to those costs from both the prosecution and the defense point of view. Surveys were received from forty-six prosecutors in thirty-six unique offices located across the state, and defense surveys were received from 254 defense attorneys who practice in 219 Texas counties. Finally, the five focus group sites involved fifty-one participants from the prosecution, defense, law enforcement and judicial communities.
This study provided a foundational look at the fiscal impacts that have arisen from policy changes implemented in jurisdictions to meet the requirements of the Michael Morton Act. The participants in both surveys and the focus groups were able to provide valuable insights on how discovery policies have changes and the kinds and sources of costs that have been incurred.”

Page 33 under Log of All Items:
“The substance of discovery documentation that received the most praise from focus group participants was the documentation approach adopted by the County Attorney’s office in Williamson County. Although they utilized a detailed log similar to the one described above, the inclusion of all evidence in the case—regardless of whether the defense attorney actually picked up or viewed that evidence –set them apart to the focus group participants. As one defense attorney in another jurisdiction who also practiced in Williamson County noted, “I like that Williamson County will list everything that they have and made available to you, whether you picked it up or not.” This was an important distinction for the attorneys, as they felt much more comfortable that the list of evidence was truly comprehensive. Like the other logs, Williamson County provided the numbers of pages of evidence and similar documentation for video and audio recordings, physical evidence, etc.”
Page 39
“These delays are contrasted by the most-praised discovery processes identified in either the surveys or the focus groups. As described earlier, the County Attorney’s office in Williamson County was highly complimented, and focus group participants stated that the office generally provides pre-information discovery within three days of request, and they are able to do so with a caseload of about 11,000 annual cases and an evidence staff of four.”
Page 48
“In jurisdictions that already had adopted or were moving toward electronic discovery through web-based portals, the impacts appeared to be the smallest in both the surveys and the focus groups. Budgets had already been adjusted to procure the equipment required to scan, store, and make discovery available for defense attorneys, and prosecutors in those jurisdictions had already worked closely with the their IT personnel and software companies to determine the software and hardware needs for the volume of cases and evidence that would be processed through the system. Those jurisdictions such as the El Paso County District Attorney’s office and the Williamson County Attorney’s office, reported that their only real process change due to the Act was to document all discovery in the case so that it could be shared with the defense and allow the jurisdiction to comply with the requirements of the law. This definitely required a time investment, but the jurisdictions were able to leverage dollars across fiscal years and to conduct incremental changes that allowed them to be responsive to the impacts of those changes as adopted. In addition, both jurisdictions were able to meet the requirements of the law with the greatest compliments from defense focus group participants.”

Fiscal Impact

From/To	Acct No.	Description	Amount

Attachments
No file(s) attached.

Form Review

Inbox	Reviewed By	Date
County Judge Exec Asst.	Wendy Coco	05/13/2015 04:18 PM
Form Started By: Peggy Vasquez		Started On: 05/13/2015 02:52 PM
Final Approval Date: 05/13/2015