In 1973, indigent criminal defendants who had been separately convicted of Florida crimes filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida against the state public defender offices pursuant to state law and 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. Plaintiffs were represented by private counsel. They alleged that the public defender's office failed to meet minimum constitutional standards of effective representation due to inadequate funding and excessive caseloads. The District Court dismissed the complaint on four grounds: (1) a Public Defender is not a state actor when he carries out his central function of representing indigents; (2) the class action was not maintainable because the deprivation of the right to effective assistance of counsel can only be proven by reference to particular instances; (3) there were adequate remedies at law; and (4) there was no case or controversy. Plaintiffs appealed.

On September 16, 1974 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Godbold, C.J.) affirmed the dismissal of the class action suit because it should not have been brought in federal court since the complaint did not allege that any of the named plaintiffs themselves were injured by the conduct of the public defenders.

Dayna Frenkel - 02/25/2009


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