Alternate Counsel Division

All public defense in Idaho is funded by the state of Idaho and managed by the State Public Defender – which includes the Alternate Counsel Division (ACD).

The ACD finds, hires and assigns private attorneys to public defense cases if there are conflicts of interest between the SPD and the people they have been assigned to represent in Idaho’s 18 counties with an institutional office:  Ada, Bannock, Benewah, Blaine, Bonner, Bonneville, Canyon, Elmore, Gooding, Jefferson, Jerome, Kootenai, Minidoka, Cassia, Power, Oneida, Shoshone, and Twin Falls.

In Idaho’s remaining 26 counties without an SPD institutional office, public defense is practiced by SPD contract attorneys.

Idaho is split up into seven judicial districts – which include a mixture of counties with institutional offices and those without.

If there is a conflict between an SPD contract attorney and client in one of Idaho’s 26 counties without an institutional office, the District Public Defender in the corresponding judicial district will find and assign substitute counsel.

Conflicts of interest can occur between lawyers, the people they are representing, and the courts.

The most common reason for a conflict is when someone is accused of a crime along with other people and the SPD represents one of them. The SPD can only represent one person who was charged, so the ACD will assign contract attorneys to any remaining indigent clients.

Another common reason for a conflict is when SPD clients may have insurmountable communication issues or other problems with SPD attorneys from current or previous cases.

The ACD also assigns attorneys in all Child Protective Act (CPA) and Uniform Post-Conviction Procedures Act cases statewide.

The SPD’s Alternate Counsel Division is managed by Director Shannon Romero in Boise and Contract Coordinator Jared Ricks in eastern Idaho. The ACD can be reached by phone at (208) 605-4595 or by email at info@spd.idaho.gov.