The Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee (AIDOAC) has directed that pursuant to an order by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas on June 7, 1991, and a memorandum to the appellate projects on June 19, 1991, for purposes of reimbursement of record review time, preliminary hearing transcripts are eliminated from the record review.
The Chief Justice’s order does allow for preliminary record review if “it can be shown that they relate to an issue in the case.” CCAP staff attorneys will look for the panel attorney’s explanation for the relevance attached to the claim. An explanation that the pages were read “for a statement of facts,” is insufficient.
In a guilty plea case, the statement of facts should come from the probation report, or from the stated factual basis. If, however, the preliminary hearing transcript was entered into evidence at the superior court level or otherwise considered by the judge, or the prelim was stipulated to as the factual basis for the plea, then reading the prelim pages can be justified with an explanation.
No one wants to spend time that may not be compensated. Accordingly, CCAP urges panel members to talk with the assigned staff buddy on the case if there is a question whether reading the preliminary hearing pages will meet the above guidelines for compensation on a given case.
