One of our foundational constitutional rights is that a person facing charges that could result in jail time or other harsh consequences has a right to an attorney, even if they cannot afford one.
However, under current New Jersey law, people facing criminal charges may have to pay up to $200 in fees to apply for a municipal public defender. These fees unfairly burden people from accessing an attorney, especially people of color and people who have low incomes. They also provide little financial returns to municipalities.
Affordability should not hinder someone’s access to legal representation. About 90% of defendants in New Jersey are indigent – meaning they do not have the resources to help pay for an attorney – yet are still often required to pay municipal public defender application fees. A $200 fee can be an extreme burden and can present a choice between food, housing, or legal defense.
To ensure fair and equal access to the Constitutional right of criminal defense, New Jersey must pass A766/S1670 and end application fees for municipal public defenders.
A766/S1670 will eliminate municipal public defender application fees in New Jersey by revoking municipalities’ ability to impose them. While the current law does not require municipalities to impose these fees, it does give them permission to charge them. A766/S1670 will remove the option entirely by creating reforms to the criminal legal system that ensure public defense is accessible and equitable, as the New Jersey and United States Constitutions promise. It will also work to lessen the financial and emotional strain put on community members who suffer from these kinds of fees.
Municipal public defender fees are part of a broader issue of unreasonable fees in the criminal legal system that leave people in massive debt. As poverty and incarceration are cyclical – those who are impoverished are more likely to be incarcerated, and those who have been incarcerated have much less financial opportunity than others – it is important that our justice system not exacerbate poverty, needlessly hindering people’s ability to disentangle themselves from the criminal legal system.
Research indicates that A766/S1670 will also not take away a meaningful source of income from municipalities, further providing incentive to eliminate them. For example, in Ridgewood in 2024, only $1,874 was collected in fees, as compared to Ridgewood’s total general appropriations of $61,473,847.66.
The data is clear – the harms these fees cause far outweigh the small amount of money they generate for municipalities. Eliminating them means helping to secure equal access to justice for all New Jerseyans, no matter their socioeconomic situation.
New Jersey has the responsibility to guarantee that the constitutional right to counsel is accessible to all who call New Jersey home, especially those who face the most marginalization from the workings of the criminal legal system.
The ACLU of New Jersey opposes policies and systems that weaponize laws to harm community members and criminalize poverty, as municipal public defender application fees do. The state of New Jersey already eliminated public defender fees in superior court, and Jersey City also eliminated the fee, proving that it is very possible to do so.
Take action now and tell your lawmakers to support A766/S1670 to eliminate all municipal public defender application fees and ensure the constitutional right to counsel is accessible to everyone.
New Jersey must abolish municipal public defender application fees once and for all, so people are not priced out of their right to public defense.
