"State's public defenders see fewer cases," is the title of J.L. Miller's report in the Wilmington News Journal.
The Public Defender's Office won't seek a budget increase this year, thanks to a puzzling trend in the number of cases the agency handles.
Public Defender Brendan O'Neill said in his agency's budget hearing Thursday that there has been "a very slight downward trend" in the number of cases in which cash-strapped defendants require representation by his lawyers.
"At this point it looks like we're not in a growth industry, and that's a good thing," O'Neill said. He said he expects his office to handle around 49,000 cases this fiscal year and the same number the following year.
But O'Neill, whose office employs 71 assistant public defenders, was at a loss to explain why the caseload hasn't gone up. Conventional wisdom would be that crime goes up in an economic downturn, and thus more people would require representation in court.
"We're really not sure," O'Neill said in response to a question by Ann Visalli, head of the Office of Management and Budget. "It's a puzzle to us."
Regardless of the cause, the trend means the office can hold its budget request steady at $14.6 million -- at a time when declining state revenues make larger budgets nearly impossible.
About 94 percent of the office's budget is in personnel costs, making budget cuts more difficult than in some other agencies. That's complicated by the fact that in order to comply with the Constitution, the state must provide representation to defendants facing imprisonment if they cannot afford an attorney.
"We really can't get stretched too much further," O'Neill said.
As it is, the agency's attorneys have their work cut out for them. In Superior Court, assistant public defenders are averaging 220 cases a year. The American Bar Association's optimal caseload standard is 150 cases.
The situation is much the same in Family Court, where the lawyers handle 408 cases a year. The ABA standard is 200.
And in Court of Common Pleas, the agency's lawyers handle 904 cases a year. The ABA standard is 400.
"This is significantly above what the ABA standards call for," O'Neill said. However, he added that this does not put the state "at risk of any malpractice or any kind of liability."
Related posts are in the indigent defense category index.
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