Planning and Financial Managementlanning and Financial Management

Planning and Financial Management
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Abstract
For quite a long time, public defenders across the United States have been complaining about too many cases and not enough money. They also claim that their clients do not provide them with sufficient time to go through the case histories. As a result, they lose many cases, and their reputation is damaged. In this research paper, I will discuss how lack of funds is affecting the overall performance of public defenders. The state and federal governments have kept mum in this regard, and raising money through crowd-funding seems to be the only option for their survival. Public defenders are assigned many cases every month, and the government has never tried to find if the funds given to them are sufficient to meet their expenses or not. Even the sitting governor is assigned a handful of cases, but the lack of funds is what impacting their performance and delaying the decisions of cases because many public defenders are not ready to continue work (Campbell et al., 2015).
Introduction
In the United States of America, public defenders are appointed by federal and state governments to represent, advise and serve people who are cannot hire private attorneys due to their financial problems. They work full-time and receive their salaries from the government itself. Before the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, there was no concept of employing either a public defender or a private attorney without money. People could only raise their voices against the criminal and drag him to the court if they had enough money to pay to the lawyer. Later on, the Sixth Amendment changed this concept by the whole (Schlesinger, 2015).
It now reads that public defenders can be hired by anyone who is unable to pay his fees. The state or federal government instead gives them salaries based on their qualifications, experience, and skills. However, the lack of funds is what public defenders are complaining about these days. A large number of public defense advocates have blamed the governments for no funding. They are overwhelmed with cases and are asked to work under pressure. However, when it comes to paying their fees on-time or providing them with other financial benefits, neither the state government nor the federal government is taking some serious steps (Zeidman, 2016).
Literature Review
According to Wenjing Chen, in 2016, a total of $31 million was raised by crowdfunding, but this money could not fulfill all the requirements of public defenders. It means more and more funds are needed, and only the state and federal governments can cope up with the issue (Chen, 2017). William Gibbons says that lack of funds has been a significant national failure. It is impacting the entire public defense system, which is responsible for providing legal help to poor and needy w...