51 Md. App. 538 - Baldwin v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 30 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) Determination of eligibility for services.—Eligibility for the services of the Office of the Public Defender shall be determined on the basis of the need of the person seeking legal representation. Need shall be measured according to the financial ability of the person to engage and compensate competent private counsel and to provide all other necessary expenses of representation. Such ability shall be recognized to be a variable depending on the nature, extent and liquidity of assets; the disposable net income of the defendant; the nature of the offense; the effort and skill required to gather pertinent information; the length and complexity of the proceedings; and any other foreseeable expenses. In the event that a determination of eligibility cannot be made before the time when the first services are to be rendered, the office may undertake representation of an indigent person provisionally, and if it shall subsequently determine that the person is ineligible, it shall so inform the person, and the person shall thereupon be obliged to engage his own counsel and to reimburse the office for the cost of the services rendered to that time.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Workman v. State · Office of the Public Defender v. State

2. “Nothing in this article shall be construed to deprive any court mentioned in § 4(b)(2) of this article of its authority to appoint an attorney to represent an indigent person where there is a conflict in legal representation in a matter involving multiple defendants and one of the defendants is represented by or through the Office of the Public Defender, or where the Office of the Public Defender declines to provide representation to an indigent person entitled to representation under this article.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Office of the Public Defender v. State · 154 Md. App. 578 - Moore v. State

3. “(1) The court must conduct its own inquiry into the matter. It is not restricted to the information relied upon by the Public Defender, or to the Public Defender’s evaluation of such information. Rather, the court should consider any information offered by the parties which may reasonably bear upon the defendant’s ability to afford private counsel, and make its own evaluation of the relevance and credibility of such information and the weight to be accorded it. (2) The proceeding may be as formal or informal as the court directs. The court may require testimony under oath or it may simply hear from the parties and witnesses as it did here. (3) The court must weigh the evidence before it and make its determination in accordance with the criteria set forth in § 7(a). Although it may evaluate the evidence differently than the Public Defender, it must use the same statutory standards. That is evident not only from the whole scheme of art. 27A, but from the particular language used in § 6(f). That section, as noted, authorizes the court to appoint counsel for “an indigent person entitled to representation under this article.” An “indigent person entitled to representation” is one declared “eligible” pursuant to the standards laid down in § 7(a). [7]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Workman v. State · 190 Md. App. 577 - Walker v. State