1. The local public defender shall do all of the following:
a. Represent without fee an indigent person who is under arrest or charged with a crime if the indigent person requests representation or the court orders representation. The local public defender shall counsel and defend an indigent defendant at every stage of the criminal proceedings and prosecute before or after conviction any appeals or other remedies which the local public defender considers to be in the interest of justice unless other counsel is appointed to the case.
b. Represent an indigent party, without fee and upon an order of the court, in child in need of assistance, family in need of assistance, delinquency, and termination of parental rights proceedings pursuant to chapter 232 in a county served by a public defender. The local public defender shall counsel and represent an indigent party in all proceedings pursuant to chapter 232 in a county served by a public defender and prosecute before or after judgment any appeals or other remedies which the local public defender considers to be in the interest of justice unless other counsel is appointed to the case.
c. Make an annual report to the state public defender. The report shall include all cases handled by the local public defender during the preceding calendar year.
2. An attorney appointed under this section is not liable to a person represented by the attorney for damages as a result of a conviction in a criminal case unless the court determines in a postconviction proceeding that the person's conviction resulted from ineffective assistance of counsel, and the ineffective assistance of counsel is the proximate cause of the damage. In juvenile or civil proceedings, an attorney appointed under this section is not liable to a person represented by the attorney for damages unless it has been determined that the attorney has provided ineffective assistance of counsel and the ineffective assistance of counsel claim is the proximate cause of the damage.
3. The local public defender shall handle every case to which the local public defender is appointed if the local public defender can reasonably handle the case. The local public defender shall be responsible for assigning cases to individual attorneys within the local public defender office and for making decisions concerning cases in which the local public defender has been appointed.
4. If a conflict of interest arises or if the local public defender is unable to handle a case because of a temporary overload of cases, the local public defender shall return the case to the court. If the case is returned and the state public defender has filed a successor designation, the court shall appoint the successor designee. If there is no successor designee on file, the court shall make the appointment pursuant to section 815.10. As used in this subsection, "successor designee" may include another local public defender office or a nonprofit organization that has a contract with the office of the state public defender for the provision of legal services to indigent persons.
88 Acts, ch 1161, § 9; 89 Acts, ch 83, § 4; 91 Acts, ch 268, §413, 439; 94 Acts, ch 1187, §18, 19; 96 Acts, ch 1040, § 3, 4; 99 Acts, ch 135, §8--10; 2002 Acts, ch 1067, §9--12; 2003 Acts, ch 51, §4
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