Public defender Drew Flood with the nonprofit law firm Metropolitan Public Defender looks over his files for a criminal cases he is currently working on in Portland, Oregon, on May 5, 2022. has approved far lower case limits for public defenders in an effort to stop them from quitting, to help with recruiting and to make sure they have enough time to represent each client properly.
Skeptics agree the system is breaking down but are concerned about finding more attorneys to cover the cases. Many counties, especially rural ones, already struggle to employ enough public defenders and get almost no state funding. The Bar’s Council on Public Defense began working on new standards in 2022. In October the state Supreme Court asked the Bar to recommend revisions for the state afterreassessed how many cases public defenders should be expected to handle and proposed a new way of calculating reasonable limits.“I am horrified that in 2024, in our democracy, in this state, people wait before they get their constitutional rights,” said Adam Heyman, a King County public defender. “My clients sit in jail and rot.
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