When we began our empirical research in September of 1984, our purpose was to examine how the 18-B Panel of private attorneys had grown from a small, residual defense entity to a major provider of indigent defense services. We sought empirical data that would enable us to: (1) describe the structure of the 18-B Panel and nature of Panel practice; (2) compare the quality of representation provided by the Panel with that of the Legal Aid Society; (3) gauge the proportionate share of indigent defendants represented by each entity; (4) explain the movement of cases between the two entities; and (5) assess the two entities’ comparative case costs.

We obtained the cooperation of the presiding justice and the 18-B Panel administrator of the First Department (New York and Bronx counties). They provided us with the Panel records for the period from 1973 to 1984 and allowed us to conduct an in-court observation study in New York County (Manhattan). We chose New York County for our observation study for two reasons. First, the institutional defense system of New York City originated in New York County. Second, New York County has the greatest concentration of attorneys and the largest and most diversified caseload in New York City.

Ultimately, however, we modified some of our objectives because we could not obtain records and aggregate statistics on staffing and lawyering activities, and on attorney caseloads from the Legal Aid Society and because the size of our research staff was limited.

We anticipated that this would limit our ability to compare the quality of representation provided by the Legal Aid Society with that provided by 18-B Panel attorneys. Without the staffing and caseload data, we were unable to systematically assess Society staff attorneys’ individual caseloads or to quantitatively analyze the particular lawyering tasks they performed.