State Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Underfunded Indigent Defense System

"Michigan was a 19th century pioneer in providing legal aid to poor criminal suspects.

Now, it has one of the nation's stingiest and most fragmented systems for representing the 80 percent of defendants who can't afford a lawyer, a wide range of critics say."

See:

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100320/NEWS01/303200003/1002/NEWS01/Michigan-pays-big-for-underfunded-indigent-defense