The Clay County Office of Public Defender Matt Shirk reported that it moved from a third-floor office suite in the courthouse to a first-floor office suite that is better equipped to meet the needs of clients, featuring more meeting space, modern infrastructure and convenience.
Visitors to the Clay County Office of the Public Defender will find it at Room 106 on the first floor in the old part of the courthouse directly across from the elevators.
The new suite offers a client reception area, a private attorney-client meeting room, a general conference room, seven attorney offices and a secretarial pool space for three assistants.
The renovated suite also is fitted with infrastructure upgrades to support technologies used by the office, including the electronic filing systems that have allowed the agency to become paperless.
“We are pleased that we can now provide our clients and their families with simple conveniences such as a waiting room and a private conference room for meeting their attorneys,” said Shirk.
Shirk thanked the Clay County administration, the Clerk of the Courts and the Board of County Commissioners for assistance in the move.
The office said the move required a retrofitting of the first floor of the courthouse, which required a couple of months of construction.
The move was completed March 19.
The Office of the Public Defender assumes space previously occupied by the Office of Regional Counsel, which relocated to 511 Houston St. in Green Cove Springs.