States and localities have developed and largely funded their own indigent defense systems. To do so, they have generally adopted one or more of the following methods for providing indigent defense-employing full or part-time public defenders to handle the bulk of cases requiring counsel; entering into contracts with private attorneys, often after a bidding contest, to provide counsel; or developing a list, or "panel," of private attorneys who accept a predetermined fixed rate and from which the court appoints as defense counsel when needed.