History - OCCCRC

About the Agency

Background

The five Regional Counsel offices were created by the legislature (Statute 27.511) in 2007 to provide legal representation to indigent persons in basically three classes of cases: 1) criminal conflict cases that the court grants the Public Defender's motion to withdraw and appoints the OCCCRC, 2) dependency and civil cases, and 3) certain statutorily authorized civil commitment proceedings. OCCCRC also handles appeals and post conviction motions.

As noted under Statute 27.511, the Florida Legislature states “it is the intent of the Legislature to provide adequate representation in a fiscally sound manner, while safeguarding constitutional principles.”

Over the last few years, the Regional Counsel offices have saved Florida taxpayers millions of dollars while providing quality representation to its clients.

Types of Cases Handled by the Agency (Per Statute 27.511):

Conflict Cases:

Under arrest for, or charged with:

A Felony
A misdemeanor
Criminal Traffic
Criminal contempt; or
A violation of a special law or county or municipal ordinance ancillary to a state charge, or if not ancillary to a state charge, only if the office of criminal conflict and civil regional counsel contracts with the county or municipality to provide representation pursuant to ss. 27.54 and 125.69.
Alleged to be a delinquent child pursuant to a petition filed before a circuit court;
Sought by petition filed in such court to be involuntarily placed as a mentally ill person under part I of chapter 394, involuntarily committed as a sexually violent predator under part V of chapter 394, or involuntarily admitted to residential services as a person with developmental disabilities under chapter 393;
Convicted and sentenced to death, for purposes of handling an appeal to the Supreme Court; or
Is appealing a matter in a case arising of the above