The Iowa Supreme Court is being asked to consider, again, if state courts can bill poor defendants for their court-appointed lawyers, even when they're acquitted or the charges against them are dropped (article available here).
If the court takes up the case, State of Iowa v. Ronald Pagliai, it will be the second time in recent years that Iowa's highest court has ruled on the state's unusually aggressive practice of billing poor defendants for court-appointed attorneys.
Several civil liberties groups—the Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, and Public Justice—filed an amicus brief in that case earlier this month, arguing that the state's fee scheme is unconstitutionally vague and violates the presumption of innocence by levying sanctions against nonconvicted defendants.
According to a 2022 report by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), 42 states and the District of Columbia allow courts to charge fees for public defender systems. However, civil liberties groups and news investigations say Iowa is extreme in terms of the amount of fees and the fact that it bills defendants whose charges were thrown out.
The Marshall Project's analysis of Iowa court data found that between 2012 and 2022, the state sent bills totaling $30 million to indigent defendants who were acquitted or whose charges were dropped.