RS 15:168 Judicial district indigent defender fund
§168. Judicial district indigent defender fund
A. There is hereby created within each judicial district an indigent defender fund which shall be administered by the district public defender and composed of funds provided for by this Section and such funds as may be appropriated or otherwise made available to it.
B.(1) Every court of original criminal jurisdiction, except in the town of Jonesville, in the city of Plaquemine, and in mayors' courts in municipalities having a population of less than five thousand, shall remit the following special costs to the district indigent defender fund for the following violations, under state statute as well as under parish or municipal ordinance, except a parking violation. The sum of thirty-five dollars shall be assessed in cases in which a defendant is convicted after a trial, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or after forfeiting bond and shall be in addition to all other fines, costs, or forfeitures imposed.
(2) Such amounts shall be remitted by the respective recipients thereof to the judicial district indigent defender fund monthly by the tenth day of the succeeding month.
C. Except as otherwise provided by the Louisiana Public Defender Act, the funds provided for in this Section, and any other self-generated revenue and all interest or other income earned from the investment of such funds and self-generated revenue shall be retained in the district and shall be used and administered by the district public defender.
D. No defendant who has retained private counsel of record shall be assessed any costs to be credited to the indigent defender fund, other than the special costs established by Subsection B of this Section, unless the board has provided representation of record for that defendant at some point in that criminal proceeding.
E. Any surplus monies in the judicial district indigent defender fund on August 15, 2007, shall be retained in that judicial district and remain in the judicial district indigent defender fund. Any unexpended and unencumbered monies in the judicial district indigent defender fund at the close of each fiscal year shall remain in the judicial district indigent defender fund. Monies in the fund shall be administered and used solely and exclusively for purposes of delivering indigent defender services in that judicial district.
Acts 2007, No. 307, §1.