The Washington State Bar Association earlier this month adopted new caseload limits which determine the maximum amount of cases a public defender can take on in a year. The state bar association hopes that the lower standards will attract new public defenders amidst a nationwide shortage.
The Washington State Bar Association earlier this month adopted new caseload limits which determine the maximum amount of cases a public defender can take on in a year. The state bar association hopes that the lower standards will attract new public defenders amidst a nationwide shortage.
WENATCHEE — Public defense directors in Chelan and Douglas counties want to be optimistic about newly approved caseload limits meant to improve indigent defense for clients and working conditions for public defenders.
But they’re unsure if they’ll be able to meet the staffing requirements if the standards do not attract lawyers to public defense as intended by the Washington State Bar Association’s new standards adopted March 8.
Public defenders provide legal defense for indigent clients facing criminal charges, a right afforded by the U.S. Constitution.
Caseload limits — the total number of misdemeanor or felony cases an attorney can take in a 12-month period — are meant to give attorneys the time to ensure effective representation for indigent clients.
Jesse Collins appears in Douglas County Superior Court via Zoom at the Chelan County Regional Justice Center in March 2023.
Provided photo/Douglas County Superior Court
Responding to widespread defender shortages and workload problems, the bar’s Council on Public Defense began working on new standards in 2022.
The result was fewer caseloads each year through 2028 starting July 25, 2025.
Right now, a public defender could be assigned up to 400 misdemeanor cases and 150 felony cases. The number of misdemeanor cases assigned to an attorney can be as low as 300 depending on their weight.
These standards have not “substantially changed” since being first adopted in 1984, according to a Washington State Bar Association news release.
Jeremy Ford, Chelan County Counsel for Defense director, said the calculations for caseloads can vary as different counties weigh it differently.
The state bar association sets guidelines for how to calculate certain cases. A misdemeanor harassment charge, for example, has a value of 1.5 cases, while a murder charge has a value of seven cases.
Ford readily admits the country and state are experiencing a shortage of public defenders.
“Some feel it’s the result of high caseloads,” Ford said. “I don’t disagree that the caseload limits are too high. It’ll be great if you’re an attorney because I think it will provide you a lot of time to work on cases, which is a great thing.”
Jesse Collins, Douglas County Public Defense director, also said that having more time for cases is a good thing but finding a good balance is key.
“Nobody’s going to argue that less cases, more ability to work your cases equals better defendants,” Collins said. “The question to me is how far do we need to go with it?”
By July 25, 2028, a public defender is limited to 120 misdemeanor cases and 47 felony cases.
Ford’s fear is that if caseloads are limited further, and the defender shortage doesn’t change, people will end up going months without an attorney because everyone is maxed out.
“It sounds great if you have an attorney,” Ford said. “I think the issue is going to be … in the short term a way for us to meet these standards, and not have people go unrepresented.”
For Chelan and Douglas Counties, Collins and Ford said the normal amount of cases they receive puts them under the caseload limits for the next year or so.
Collins said that Douglas County is specifically doing very well with their cases and are low in part because of the county’s population. In 2023, his office handled 171 felonies.
But in two years, he will need to double his attorney staff to handle the same amount of felonies.
Ford said it took nearly a year to hire their last attorney who ultimately came from Minnesota where caseload limits are higher than in Washington.
“I had to end up offering $5,000 sign on bonus $2,000 moving expenses, and that and I didn’t even get any resumes until I did that,” Ford said.
Ford said he agrees with the state bar association that part of the solution is to lower the caseload limits because they are too high.
Collins, who previously worked as a public defender in Skagit County for 10 years, said he’d be maxed out on cases every year.
“If you were doing misdemeanors, you’re doing 400 a year,” he said. “If you’re doing felonies, you’re doing 150 a year. In the five years I’ve been here, we’ve never been close.”
Outside of caseload limits, the state bar also requires that public defender offices work toward expanding their non-attorney staff like investigators, social workers and legal assistants. Ford said that by 2028 he will have had to nearly triple his staff which he doesn’t think he will be able to do.
“I think the problem is, kind of like everything in America, we don’t want to invest in things that are going to pay off in the future,” Ford said.
Both Ford and Collins said their respective counties have been supportive financially. The state to a lesser extent had not been supportive until recently.
The legislature this year signed a bill, SB 5780, that would have the Washington State Office of Public Defense create a rural public defense program to coordinate legal interns or recent law school graduates to work as public defenders in underserved areas of the state, according to a bill report.
The bill also establishes a law student prosecution program to place law students into prosecutors’ offices in rural or underserved areas of the state.
And Collins believes that it would help to attract people to the profession if they could reach people during law school or soon after to teach them about public defense so they’d see this is “a cool way to make a living.”
“I don’t want to do anything else,” Collins said. “I like this profession. It’s a good way to make a living. It’s always interesting. It’s never boring. There’s obviously downsides to it as well, but it’s a good profession.”
The two directors are unsure how things will turn out with these standards, but they hope things work out in attracting new people to public defense.
“It’s just the short-term problem is well, requiring more lawyers, when we don’t have lawyers now seems dumb,” Collins said. “But if it creates the lawyers, then it’s not. They were geniuses. Yeah, they’re doing the right thing. So I don’t have the answers. I think that this is a good step.”
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