History of the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel
As a result of the burgeoning cost of indigent legal services and the inability to predict or manage the year-to-year expenses of the registry system, the legislature created the Offices of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel (RCC) coinciding with the five district court of appeal regions to handle the first criminal conflict or civil appointment. Since the first full year of operation (2008-2009) the overall cost of registry AND regional counsels for the entire state have remained constant at a cost of between 75-80 million dollars. The RCC’s provide quality representation at predictable cost. It is estimated that the cost savings to the people of the state of Florida since creation of the RCC’s is over $400 million.*
RC1 serves those counties within the jurisdiction of the traditional First District Court of Appeals, which included six circuits and 32 counties. In 2022, HB 7027 created a 6th DCA and realigned the 1st, 5th and 2nd DCA’s. The bill allowed for all 5 Regional Counsels to maintain their original jurisdictions so now RC1 consists of the 1st DCA and part of the 5th DCA. The circuits and areas in RC1 are as follows:
Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton
Gadsden, Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Liberty, Franklin
Madison, Taylor, Hamilton, Suwannee, Lafayette, Dixie, Columbia
Nassau, Duval, Clay
Baker, Union, Bradford, Gilchrist, Alachua, Levy
Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf
RC1 employs 124 full-time employees. On average, RC1 absorbs about 75% of the criminal conflict cases and about 40% of the civil dependency appointments. Within the agency, the mix is approximately 70% criminal and 30% civil. RC1’s attorneys are very experienced. The average attorney employed at RC1 has practiced law for more than 13 years. Their goal, and that of the support staff, is to provide RC1’s clients with the very best legal service possible.