KRS 31.030: Authority and duties of department -- Annual report.

The authority and duties of the Department of Public Advocacy shall include but are not

limited to:

(1) Administering the statewide public advocacy system created by this chapt er or by

any other appropriate legislation or court decision;

(2) Developing policies and procedures for administration of the defense of indigent

defendants in criminal cases that the public advocate, statutes, or the courts

determine are subject to public assistance;

(3) Determining necessary personnel for the department and appointing staff attorneys,

who shall be assistant public advocates, and non -lawyer assistants within the merit

system, subject to available funding and employee allotments;

(4) Maintaining and exercising control over the department's information technology

system, and working with the Commonwealth Office of Technology to ensure that

the department's information technology is in conformity with the requirements of

state government;

(5) Conducting research into, and developing and implementing methods of, improving

the operation of the criminal justice system with regard to indigent defendants and

other defendants in criminal actions, including participation in groups,

organizations, and projects dedicated to improving representation of defendants in

criminal actions in particular, or the interests of indigent or impoverished persons in

general;

(6) Issuing rules, promulgating administrative regulations in accordance with KRS

Chapter 13A, and establishing standards as may be reasonably necessary to carry

out the provisions of this chapter, the decisions of the United States Supreme Court,

the decisions of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and other

applicable court decisions or statutes;

(7) Being authorized to pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies to

ensure the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities;

(8) Being authorized to purchase liability insurance for the protection of all full -time

public advocates, deputy public advocates, and assistant public advocates to protect

them from liability for malpractice arising in the course or scope of employment

and for the protection of attorneys with whom the Department of Public Advocacy

contracts to protect them from liability for malpractice arising in the course or

scope of the contract;

(9) Being authorized to seek, apply for, and solicit funds for the operation of the

defense of indigent persons or protection of the persons with disabilities prog rams

from any source, public or private, and to receive donations, grants, awards, and

similar funds from any legal source. Those funds shall be placed in a special

account for the Department of Public Advocacy and, notwithstanding KRS 45.229,

those funds shall not lapse;

(10) Being authorized to assign an attorney, including a confl ict attorney under a plan,

for good cause, at any stage of representation, including trial, appeal, or other post -

conviction or post-disposition proceeding, including discharge revocation hearings,

preliminary parole revocation hearings, and conditional di scharge revocation

hearings, regardless of whether the hearings are conducted by constitutional judges

or executive branch administrative law judges;

(11) Filing an annual report with the Legislative Research Commission by September 30

of each year, for referral to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary, informing the

public of the work of all divisions of the department and setting forth the total

number and types of cases assigned to the department by county, the average

number of cases per department a ttorney, all funding available to the department,

the average amount of state funds expended per assigned case, and any other

information requested by the Legislative Research Commission or that the public

advocate finds necessary to inform the General Ass embly, the judicial or executive

branches, or the public of the activities conducted by the department during the

previous fiscal year;

(12) Performing other activities and instituting other programs as necessary to carry out

the provisions of this chapter, or those decisions or statutes which are the subject of

this section;

(13) (a) Within sixty (60) days of the end of each fiscal year, filing with the Cabinet

for Health and Family Services and the Legislative Research Commission for

referral to the Inter im Joint Committees on Judiciary and Families and

Children a report detailing:

1. The number of alternative sentencing plans submitted to courts that

recommended treatment by providers that were nonqualified treatment

programs;

2. A breakdown of the number of plans described in subparagraph 1. of

this paragraph that were approved, denied, or amended by the courts;

and

3. A listing of all treatment programs recommended that did not meet the

requirements of a qualified treatment program.

(b) As counsel appoin ted to provide legal representation to an individual under

KRS Chapter 31, the department or defense counsel serves at the direction or

request of the represented individual and may make recommendations for

substance abuse treatment services from a treatme nt provider that is not a

qualified treatment program but shall adhere to the reporting requirements in

KRS 222.427(3); and

(14) Requiring alternative sentencing workers as defined in KRS 31.252 to:

(a) Obtain a minimum of twelve (12) hours of continuing e ducation pertaining to

substance use disorder; and

(b) Comply with KRS 222.429.