Fulton County's chief judge strongly criticized the closure of a metro defender office, saying it was poorly planned and will create a legal crisis for about 1,850 poor people charged with crimes.

"This action by the state is irresponsible — any change in the current system should be carefully planned and coordinated so that there is no break in indigent defense representation," Doris Downs, chief judge of Fulton Superior Court, said in a statement on Monday.

Closing the office so abruptly will create a "legal crisis" because the state cannot prosecute indigents without providing them adequate legal representation, she said.

Downs was reacting to the decision by the Georgia Public Defender Standard Council on Friday to abruptly close down the 21-member Metro Conflict Defender Office at the end of the month. Fulton County's public defender's office has 98 attorneys — the smaller Metro Conflict Defender Office only gets involved in multidefendant cases, when a public defender can represent only one person charged because of conflict-of-interest rules.

The closure means that 16 lawyers from the conflict office will be out of a job on June 30 and about 1,850 indigent defendants they are now representing in Fulton County will need new lawyers to represent them.

The defender council's board will hold a specially called meeting today to consider the decision.

The closure was announced by Mack Crawford, a former legislator who is now director of the statewide defender system.

"The council will take this opportunity to have a full discussion with the executive staff about this decision," said Wilson DuBose, chairman of the council's board.

Crawford has said the cuts were needed because the council, which spent $9 million last year on "conflict" cases statewide, received only $5.4 million from the Legislature for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The council spent $2 million last year on the metro conflict office. Even though the office is being closed, the council will give $800,000 to Fulton County to pay for additional lawyers to handle "conflict" cases next year. The county can use that money as it sees fit, he said.

Gainesville lawyer Wyc Orr, a member of the council's board, questioned Monday whether Crawford had the authority to make the decision without getting approval from the board first.

"I also think we need to take a look at that office and determine if this is the best and most responsible way of dealing with the budgetary problems we have," he said.

In her statement, Downs urged the defender council's board "to reject this flawed plan and work with the judicial system to ensure an efficient system for providing adequate legal representation to indigent defendants."

Fulton County Manager Zachary Williams also expressed concern over the office closure. "Any cuts to state-funded conflict defenders could have a detrimental effect throughout the Fulton County justice system," he said.