by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

On Friday, August 19th, thirteen public defenders and staff, representing seven BIDS offices, gathered in Topeka to be certified in Mental Health First Aid.

by Caroline Zuschek, Deputy Capital Appellate Defender

I show up at the North Central Regional Public Defender Office a little after ten on a Wednesday morning. Though this office used to be my home away from home, the pandemic changed all that, and it has been months since I visited. 

It is a whole new world, I soon find out, as the court in Junction City, the Geary County District Court, has changed its docket management. It used to be that attorneys had a finite number of cases almost every day of the week, morning and afternoon. In an effort to simplify things for appointed counsel who are frequently driving from places as far as Kansas City, Missouri, and Emporia, Kansas, the court has shifted to holding court fewer days per week and in multiple courtrooms at one time. “It’s like a NASCAR race,” a law school classmate and now BIDS-appointed counsel, Chris Ambrose, tells me. “It is a war zone,” agrees public defender Michael Hawthorne.

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

I am beyond excited to have Christina Kerls joining the BIDS Training Department this month as our new Assistant Training Director. Many of you will know Christina from her long service with BIDS – in both the Appellate Defender Office and the Northeast Kansas Conflicts Office – and as an adjunct professor at Washburn Law School. But for those who haven’t gotten to know her yet, I sat down this week to ask her a few questions to help introduce her.

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

The Kansas Board of Indigents’ Defense Services (colloquially known as “BIDS) is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. In celebration, let’s take a look back at where public defense in Kansas started and where it is now.

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

With things looking at least a little bit better pandemic-wise, the Appellate Defender Office has resumed visiting trial offices.