Wisconsin’s newest export: Criminal-defense system

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Jordanian lawyers in Wisconsin to look for legal solutions

If criminal defendants can’t afford a lawyer in the U.S., the usual assumption is that the government will provide one.

But that’s not the case in many countries. Among them is Jordan.

This Middle Eastern country, home to about 7.7 million and roughly equal in size to Indiana, now sees about 83 percent of criminal defendants go unrepresented during the initial stages of a case and 68 percent of defendants go without legal representation in court, according to a 2012 study by the Justice Center for Legal Aid, a non-profit organization. A pair of Jordanian attorneys, Ali Al-Saber and Jamal Feroun, have made it their mission to improve those numbers and are looking to Wisconsin’s justice system for some help.

Among the things they are seeking are a few lessons they can use to improve how they practice law in their own cases. More importantly, though, they are trying to learn about policies that both legal-aid organizations and lawmakers in their home country could use to help prevent legal representation from being something that is reserved for the wealthy.

Feroun and Al-Saber practice law in Jordan’s capital city, Amman. Feroun works as a criminal-defense lawyer for Justice Center for Legal Aid. Al-Saber, meanwhile, is one of 30 lawyers practicing at one of the largest firms in Amman, Word of Law Law Firm. When Al-Saber returns to Jordan, his firm will let him take two criminal defense cases a year pro bono.

“The most important thing we are trying to do and to implement when we go back to Jordan is how to protect the legal-aid organizations — there are some problems now between them and Jordan that need resolution,” Al-Saber said.

A large number of indigent defendants are now flooding the country’s court system, the pair said. Making things difficult for them is the fact that people accused of crimes in Jordan now have only three ways to get free legal representation.

If they are suspected of what the country considers to be a major crime, they can seek to have a trial judge appoint a lawyer. Failing that, they can turn for help to the country’s mandatory bar association, which has the power to assign a case to each lawyer in the country. As the final alternative, they can seek legal aid from a private organization.

The need for a solution is dire, Feroun said, especially because of a 2004 law that requires all juveniles who are accused of a felony to have a lawyer. On top of that has come the recent deluge of Syrian refugees, which has only added to the burdens on the country’s court system.

To be sure, the Jordanian and U.S. legal systems differ greatly from one another. Jordan, for instance, has no jury trials, only bench trials.

Even so, Feroun and Al-Saber have managed to find hints for ways to improve the legal system in their own country.

Feroun said he would like to see Jordan set up in-take courts.

“We think it’s a really good idea instead of holding someone for a long time, they can actually appear in front of a commissioner the same day, the next day or the closest day,” he said. “This would simplify the role of the trial judge.”

And although Wisconsin is best known for its cheese, the state might find one day it has another export: its public defender system. Feroun and Al-Saber said they found much to admire in the way Wisconsin provides representation to those who can least afford it.

“The sooner lawyers are involved with the cases, the better,” said Feroun. “We don’t need indigents to suffer.”

As part of their four-week visit, Feroun and Al-Saber attended the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s week-long Trial Skills Academy and are now shadowing assistant state-public defenders and visiting various courts and offices, including the Milwaukee County Courthouse and the public defender’s Milwaukee Trial Office. They had a meeting last week with Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Pat Roggensack and observed the proceedings of criminal trials.

Feroun and Al-Saber’s visit was made possible through a partnership between the Justice Center for Legal Aid and the state Public Defender’s Office. Their tour, although in many ways remarkable, is not without precedent.

When Israel was developing a national public-defender program in the 1990s, Wisconsin served as one of its models. Senior managers from Israel’s National Public Defender traveled to Madison for two weeks for training and an opportunity to observe how the Wisconsin’s State Public Defender office performs its duties.

The Wisconsin State Public Defender also helped organize an international summit, which in 2002 brought together indigent defense leaders from around the world. These events, as well as Al-Saber and Feroun’s visit, were paid for in large part by private money from the Wisconsin Law Alumni Association.

Randy Kraft, communications director for the office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender, says he hopes that the pair of Jordanian lawyers have gained experiences that will help them not only in their own practices but also help more of the indigent get legal representation in their home country.

“We’re more than happy to export indigent defense expertise,” Kraft said. “We have a history of that.”