County-Specific Data

County Lines Define Access to Counsel

Texas doesn’t have one public defense system – it has 254 different sets of decisionmakers deciding what types of organizations to use and how much funding they each receive. Texas delegates the majority of the responsibility and cost of providing legal counsel to indigent defendants to its individual county governments.1 This structure means that the resources, expertise, and commitment to public defense vary from one county to the next.

32%

of counties have some form public defenders office.2

$14

Texas-level spending per capita on indigent defense.3

$20

national average per capita spending on indigent defense.4

The Two Primary Models of Public Defense

Counties traditionally rely on appointed counsel but supplement this representation with a combination of one or both of two models to meet their constitutional obligation to provide counsel:5

Public Defender Offices (PDOs)

These are 501(c)3 non-profits or government agencies operating law offices funded by the county and/or state grants.6 They traditionally employ salaried staff, including attorneys, investigators, social workers, administrators, and other staff.7 Only a fraction of Texas's 254 counties use this model, often the largest urban ones.8

Managed Assigned Counsel Programs

All Texas counties rely to some extent on appointing private attorneys to handle cases for indigent clients (in particular, to handle cases where a single law firm cannot represent multiple people without creating a conflict of interest).9 These systems operate through lists maintained by the courts or by a more independent Managed Assigned Counsel (MAC) programs.10 Appointed counsel structures can vary in how managed it is (may be used together):11

  • Ad Hoc/Flat-Fee Contracts: In many smaller, rural counties, an attorney may be paid per case or hourly depending on the charge level of the case.12 Some counties enter into contracts with private attorneys or even nonprofits to handle cases in bulk.13
  • MAC Program: These organizations introduce some oversight, may pay attorneys per case or hourly, and rely on private lawyers.14

It has been argued that fee-based payment methods can create incentives to quickly close cases rather than provide a thorough defense.15

Map of Texas Indigent Defense Systems

This interactive map allows you to examine the differences in public defense systems across the state. Click on any county to review its local defense model, average spending per case, and attorney caseload statistics.

Public defenders office and managed assigned counsel systems differ widely in the percentage of all cases in the county that they take, from just a small percentage to most of the cases.

About the Data

The information on this page is derived from two central public sources that monitor Texas's court and defense systems:

  • Office of Court Administration (OCA): Provides the volume of criminal case activity in each county, including felony and misdemeanor filings and dispositions.17 OCA mandates that all Texas courts report this case data.18
  • Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC): Supplies data on the cost and delivery of indigent defense.19 This includes county expenditures, attorney payment rates, and caseload statistics, collected through annual county reports required by the Commission.20

Learn more about where this data comes from.