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About The Program

Mission Statement:
“The Program strives to help those who cannot help themselves, who face steep odds against the power of the State, and who struggle with poverty, mental issues, helplessness and dread. The attorneys in the Program save lives and save families. Panel attorneys are the first line of defense for the freedoms granted to us by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Program provides training and support to the panel attorneys, including mentoring, case conferences, CLE, and social worker assistance for the client.”

History

The Bar Association of Erie County formed the Aid to Indigent Prisoners Society on May 21, 1962. The first Administrator was the late Joseph D. Mintz, who was later elected to the State Supreme Court bench. In 1964, Mintz was selected by the State Attorney General to chair a committee about counsel for indigent defendants, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright ¹. That decision held the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to counsel applied to matters in state and local courts through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 1964, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Conference was held in Buffalo, in apparent recognition of the great contributions to public interest law made by Buffalo and Western New York attorneys. By 1967, both Rochester and Syracuse had developed programs modeled on the Bar Association’s legal aid system for indigents.

¹ Writing the unanimous decision, Justice Black stated that “in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him… That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries… our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials… This noble idea cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.”