| Advisory opinion request regarding whether certain employees of the 40th Judicial District Public Defender Office can perform compensated services for one or more of the independent contract attorneys. |
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The 40th Judicial District Public Defender Office (Office) provides counsel to indigent clients in St. John the Baptist Parish in accordance with the provisions of the Louisiana Public Defender Act, La. R.S. 15:141 et seq. The Office employs full-time and part-time attorneys and support staff. The Office also engages additional attorneys to provide compensated public defender services pursuant to an independent contractor agreement with the Office. At the end of each calendar year, the Office must submit a report, which includes detailed information regarding the workload, resources, employees, and expenditures for the Office for the previous fiscal year, to the Louisiana Public Defender Board (LPDB), in accordance with La. R.S. 15:174.
Ashley Bogac is currently employed with the Office as the Administrative Assistant. As such, her duties include, but are not limited to, preparing the annual report for the LPDB, which includes reviewing the "defenderData" database (Database) entries for correctness and correcting any missing or erroneous entries to ensure the report is accurate. Erica Carter is currently employed with the Office as the Receptionist. As such, her duties include, but are not limited to, entering all of the client applications into the database at the time of application.
The Office's clerical staff, including Ms. Bogac and Ms. Carter, are responsible for entering new cases into the Database and updating the information reflecting proceedings in court. However, as of July 1, 2016, independent contractor attorneys are responsible for updating the information in the Database regarding their assigned cases. They may use their own secretaries, paralegals, and assistants to complete the required data entry, but it may not be delegated to the Office's clerical personnel. Some of the independent contractor attorneys do not employ their own secretaries, paralegals, and assistants and report that they do not have the time or familiarity with the Database to comply with the data entry requirements of their contracts.
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La. R.S. 42:1111C(1)(a) prohibits a public servant from receiving any thing of economic value for any service, the subject matter of which is devoted substantially to the responsibilities, programs, or operations of his agency and in which he has participated.
La. R.S. 42:1111C(2)(d) prohibits a public servant from receiving any thing of economic value for or in consideration of services rendered, or to be rendered, to or for any person during her public service unless such services are neither performed for nor compensated by any person that has or is seeking to obtain contractual or other business or financial relationships with her agency.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Haley Williams |
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