In October of 2002, the Equal Justice Center began a program to examine the actual experience in various Texas counties in their efforts to implement the Texas Fair Defense Act.  With the Act having taken effect in January of 2002, there has now been enough experience accumulated in many counties to begin to learn some preliminary lessons about what has or has not worked - and why.  EJC sent teams to Lubbock County (pop. 242,628) and Wood County (pop. 36,752) to observe and to listen to the assessment of local judges, defense lawyers, magistrates, court administrators, commissioners and others concerning their experience and observation so far.  On the Wood County team, Texas Appleseed partnered with the Equal Justice Center. Summaries of our findings, drawn from the combined insights of these various stakeholders, together with our own observations, were presented to the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense at its meeting on October 23, 2002.  Click here to view PDF versions of our summaries regarding Lubbock and Wood Counties.