“Mr. Beaver, should we hire a private attorney or insist that our son, ‘Tom,’ just ask for a public defender for his possession of a controlled substance charge? He was arrested with several ...

“But I don’t know how I’m going to hire anybody up there.” Contractors handle public defender responsibilities in about half of the state’s 14 counties. By some metrics, Vermont’s ...

The news comes one year after the Louisiana Legislature passed a bill giving the state more power over public defense.