Who's responsible for housing the state's conflict counsels? The counties won at the circuit level and the state has taken its case to the first DCA.

The battle over who is responsible to pay the overhead costs of the Offices of the Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsels was argued at the First District Court of Appeal in June.

The state is appealing a Second Circuit ruling that found that Legislature ran afoul of the Florida Constitution by requiring counties to fund the OCCCRCs. The 26 counties that brought suit successfully argued at the circuit level that Article V holds that no county is required to fund court-appointed counsel and the state is responsible for picking up those expenses. The state, however, contends that had the five conflict counsel offices been in existence in 1998 when Article V, Section 14, was adopted, the "intent of the framers and voters" would have been for the counties to pick up those office expenses, just as they do for the trial courts, state attorneys, and public defenders.

The five regional law offices were created by the 2007 Legislature supposedly as a cheaper way to handle multi-defendant criminal cases when the public defender has a conflict--rather than farming them out to a registry of private lawyers in each circuit. The offices handle criminal conflict cases, as well as Baker Act, Jimmy Ryce, death penalty appeals to the Supreme Court, dependency and termination of parental rights cases, termination of pregnancy cases, tuberculosis control, substance abuse confinement, adult protective services, removal of disabilities for minors, guardianship, children and families in need of services, appeals on the preceding civil cases, and all county court appeals.

Arguing for the state, Louis F. Hubener III of the Attorney General's Office said the Florida Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the fundamental object in construing constitutional provisions is to ascertain the "intent of the framers and voters" and that intent depends on what framers and voters understood the provision to mean at the time it was adopted.

Article V, Section 14, provides: "Funding for the state courts system, state attorneys' offices, public defenders' offices, and court-appointed counsel, except in subsection (c), shall be provided from state revenues appropriated by general law." Subsection (c) provides, in part: "Counties shall be required to fund the cost of communication services, existing radio systems, existing multi-agency criminal justice information systems, and the cost of construction or lease, maintenance, utilities, and security of facilities for the...