Bill > HB4070

This bill expands the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) Act to include youth defense services alongside adult criminal defense services. The bill makes several key changes: it broadens the definition of "indigent" and "indigent defense services" to explicitly include youth facing delinquency proceedings, adds a representative from the children's law section to the MIDC board, and modifies various sections of the existing law to reference both adult and youth defense services. The bill requires the MIDC to develop minimum standards for providing effective legal representation to indigent youth, similar to the existing standards for adults, and ensures that youth have the right to counsel and cannot waive that right without first consulting with an attorney. The MIDC will now be responsible for establishing standards for determining youth indigency, tracking performance metrics for youth defense services, and providing grants to local defense systems to improve the quality of legal representation for youth. The bill aims to strengthen the right to effective counsel for both adults and youth in the criminal and juvenile justice systems, with a particular focus on ensuring that indigent youth receive high-quality legal representation. The amendments take effect on October 1 following the date of enactment.

Justice

https://legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2025-HB-4070