Attorney Antonio J. Bestard Celebrates Silver Anniversary Helping Indigent Criminal Defendants

Criminal defense attorney Antonio J. Bestard announces his 25th year with the Indigent Criminal Defense Appointments (ICDA) program.

Pomona, CA (PRWEB) October 19, 2015

"I am happily celebrating this major milestone with ICDA," said Antonio. "This altruistic program provides indigent criminal defendants in the Los Angeles County Superior Courts with private attorneys when the public defender and the alternative public defender are unavailable or have a conflict."

The Los Angeles County Bar Association began operating the ICDA program for the Central District of Los Angeles County in January of 1986. Currently, approximately 330 panel lawyers handle all county-wide indigent criminal defense appointments on all misdemeanor, felony, death penalty and sexually violent predator cases. In 2012, ICDA lawyers were appointed on approximately 16,000 cases and staffed all LA County Superior Courts on a daily basis.

Attorneys who participate in the ICDA program are assigned cases on a rotational basis in order to ensure a fair distribution of the cases. Participating attorneys are designated as misdemeanor and felony grades I through V, depending on their qualifications, and are matched with cases similarly graded according to the seriousness of the case and the skills and experience required.

"Historically, ICDA has also been called on to handle special assignments for the court," said Antonio. "For example, following the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict, 150 panel attorneys provided 700 hours of pro bono arraignment services to help the Court clear 1,200 riot-related cases and ICDA attorneys handled close to 530 arraignments during a one-week span."

About Antonio J. Bestard, Attorney at Law
Southern California-area criminal defense attorney Antonio J. Bestard is a board-certified Criminal Law Specialist with over 35 years of experience representing clients charged with all types of serious state and federal felony crimes. For more information, please call (909) 623-2629. The law office is located at 101 West Mission Blvd., Suite 218B, Pomona, CA 91766.

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