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Overloaded Public Defenders May Have to Turn Down Cases COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Two court districts in Missouri have now given public notice that they may have to begin turning away cases from their Public Defender system because high caseloads are preventing adequate legal counsel. The offices in Jefferson City and Ava provide public defenders for residents in seven Missouri counties. KBIA's Matt Sherman has more on what this means for the justice system.

Last year 360 public defenders in Missouri handled about 86,000 cases.

That's about 300 cases a year for each attorney.

Cathy Kelly is the Deputy Director of the Missouri Public Defender System. She says the current public defender system has more cases to handle than it can ethically manage given its current resources. Kelly also says Missouri spends less per-capita than any state with a state-wide public defender system and no new staff positions have been added in eight years. Kelly says this makes it difficult for the justice system to fulfill their constitutional obligation to adequately represent everyone.

The idea of an adversary system was built into our constitution for a very good reason. It's because if there's not a second set of eyes looking at what the state does, if there's not somebody checking all the facts in that police report to see if in fact that's what the witnesses said, and in fact that's what the witnesses saw, and if in fact the police did everything that they were supposed to do and did not cut corners, justice doesn't exist.

Governor Matt Blunt appointed Doug Copeland to the Public Defender Commission last May. The commission oversees the state's public defender system. Copeland says that Missouri has a well-designed system, but it doesn't have enough resources to effectively manage the workload. That workload includes more than 80% of felony cases in the state. To complicate things further, he says the overwhelming caseload and comparatively low salaries lead to high turnover rates among public defenders. In some instances, two or three attorneys have to work on a single case starting from the beginning each time. Copeland says the importance of public defenders to the state's criminal justice system shouldn't be underestimated.

If we don't have that 80% of criminal defense working in the fashion it's intended to work the whole system collapses. Prosecutors can't prosecute unless there's a defense attorney there. Judges can't find people innocent or guilty unless there's a defense counsel there. So it's such a necessary component to the whole criminal justice system working to have all those pieces working together.

Legal Ethics Counsel Sara Rittman investigates complaints of professional misconduct for the Missouri Supreme Court.
She says lawyers who aren't providing adequate defense counsel run the risk of disciplinary action. Rittman says if an attorney is found to be in violation of the rules, possible ramifications include a formal written admonition, a reprimand from the state Supreme Court, probation, or disbarment.
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