The indigent representation program provides legal services for persons who are constitutionally entitled to legal counsel but who are found to be indigent by the court and unable to pay for legal services. This includes criminal defendants in jeopardy of incarceration and both children and parents in dependency and neglect and termination of parental rights cases. Guardians ad litem are the attorneys who often represent the children in these types of cases.
The indigent representation program is funded with general fund state tax dollars. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) administers the indigent representation fund, which compensates attorneys, interpreters, experts and investigators for providing services to indigent defendants. The Indigent Services Team includes attorneys, auditors, and technology specialists. Supreme Court Rule 13 provides additional information about how attorneys and other experts are compensated for indigent representation work, including information on compensation rates, deadlines for filing claims, expenses and more. ACAP is the claims processing system used to manage payments. Attorneys, interpreters, experts and investigators must register in ACAP before submitting a claim through the system. Claims are only accepted through ACAP.