SEATTLE — The Washington State Bar Association has approved much lower limits for public defenders in an effort to prevent them from quitting, to help with recruitment and to ensure they have enough time to properly represent each client.
The new limits, adopted by a 12-1 vote at a March 8 meeting of the bar’s board of directors, are intended to reduce the maximum number of cases by about two-thirds over the next few years, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.
“Public defense is in crisis right now,” Jason Schwarz, director of the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense, told the bar association, which regulates attorneys statewide. “If we do nothing, we will remain in a crisis.”
Skeptics agree the system is broken, but worry about finding more lawyers to handle the cases. Many counties, especially in rural areas, already struggle to hire enough public defenders and receive virtually no government funding.
“This could cause smaller counties like ours to go bankrupt” unless the new limits help convince state lawmakers to allocate more funding, Franklin County Administrator Mike Gonzalez said in a statement before the meeting. “At some point we just won’t be able to pay the bills.”
The idea is to make lawyers available to criminal defendants who can’t afford to pay, but public defenders are scarce and busy. So some people presumed innocent spend more time in jail, some charges are dismissed, and costs to the county rise.
Advocates acknowledge the changes will likely increase costs for counties, but say it won’t happen all at once. Some advocates hope the move will prompt counties to consider alternative strategies that could reduce the number of cases they prosecute.
The Bar Association’s Public Defense Council began working on new standards in 2022. In October, the state Supreme Court asked the bar association to recommend revisions for the state after a national report reassessed how many cases public defenders were expected to handle and suggested a new course of action. calculating reasonable limits.
During the debate Friday, advocates urged the bar to make the changes.
“I’m shocked that in 2024, in our democracy, in this state, people are waiting to get their constitutional rights,” said Adam Heyman, a King County public defender. “My clients are in jail and rotting.”
For decades, public defenders’ files were limited to 150 felonies or 400 misdemeanors per year. This will change gradually from 2025, reaching a new limit of 47 crimes or 120 offenses in 2027, with lower maximums for certain types of cases. A defense attorney working only on homicide cases would be limited to about seven per year.
The state Supreme Court has ultimate authority over criminal proceedings and has not yet decided whether to adopt the new limits. The existing rules of the court are modeled after the old standards of the bar.
Eric Johnson, executive director of the Washington State Association of Counties, said the new limits could require doubling or tripling the $200 million that counties currently spend on public defense each year. He asked the bar to help lobby for state funding.
Lawmakers this month passed a bill to train law students and new attorneys as public defenders in rural and underserved areas, but advocates say it likely won’t solve the crisis overnight.
Before the vote, board member Serena Sayani called the old boundaries untenable.
“We are failing to serve our public by not having a system in place that allows people to have adequate representation,” Sayani said.