The Appellate Division, Second Department, has stopped taking applications for its trial-level 18-B panels, saying it has plenty of available attorneys to represent indigent criminal defendants and it expects that New York City’s new assigned-counsel program, which involves greater reliance on institutional providers, will result in a decrease in the demand for 18-B attorneys.
Within the past week, a Second Department committee handling assigned-counsel matters has temporarily paused from accepting new applications for attorneys to sit on 18-B panels, said Aprilanne Agostino, the department’s clerk of the court.
