Officials with Georgia’s public defender system say they may need Governor Perdue to call a special panel to help them deal with deep budget cuts. System leaders say a gathering of the Fiscal Affairs Committee may be the best chance at this point to help them cope with the situation. The state-funded public defender system is facing lagging support from state legislators and mounting funding problems amid the economic downturn. It was also slapped with a lawsuit last month that seeks to halt prosecutions in hundreds of northeast Georgia cases until lawyers are provided to represent the defendants.
