Mayor Michael Nutter's administration opposes legislation pending in the Philadelphia City Council that would create legislative oversight of contracts for the legal representation of Philadelphians too poor to afford their own lawyers in family court and criminal court, The Legal Intelligencer's P.J. D'Annunzio reports. Instead of having individual attorneys take court appointments, the administration is trying to contract with a new private law firm to do that work.
A City Council committee passed ordinances that would authorize City Council to review contracts involving legal representation of poor Philadelphians of more than $100,000, among other proposed changes.
According to The Legal, Michael Resnick, Nutter's director of public safety, testified in opposition: "The point of my testimony is that we contract for other services that implicate constitutional rights, we do it well, and we don't need the charter to be changed."
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