COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to set up a committee that will put together a Indigent Defense Standards Plan for the County.
The plan has to be put together by November14, 2017 under Michigan Indigent Defense laws and the recent changes that were made.
District Judge Brent Wiegle said during a special meeting last Friday that the county would be responsible for what they spent on indigent defense in the past and the state would pay for any additional costs.
Chris Denny from the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission said last Friday that each county in the state was required to create an indigent defense plan due to a 2012 lawsuit. Part of the settlement called for the State of Michigan to implement a plan so that an defendant who was indigent would have proper legal representation.
