The American Bar Association's Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, are a concise summary of the basic principles underlying strong, modern indigent defense systems.  The Ten Principles, adopted by the ABA House of Delegates in February 2002, set out "fundamental criteria to be met for a public defense delivery system to deliver effective and efficient, high quality, ethical, conflict-free representation to accused persons who cannot afford to hire an attorney."  The Ten Principles are equally applicable to every type of indigent defense system, including assigned counsel programs, contract defender programs, or public defender programs.  The Ten Principles provide both experts and non-experts a set of conventional national norms for assessing the quality and integrity of particular indigent defense systems.  Use this link to the ABA website to view The Ten Principles of a Public Defense System or to download a PDF version of the Ten Principles.