Case Load Cap Could Hurt Defenders

DAYTON - The Sixth Amendment guarantees an attorney for any defendant in need of one, but recent caseload concerns moved the Supreme Court to adopt new standards that will impose a cap on the number of cases attorneys can handle and could restrict private prac- tices for the public defenders the state has relied on.

This change will impact local defenders.

At the last Columbia County Commissioners meeting, public defenders C. Dale Slack, of Dayton, and Andrea Burkhart, of Walla Walla, discussed the new standards, called indigent defense standards, with the county commissioners and issues the county could face.

According to the Wash- ington Courts website, courts. wa.gov, the recently adopted standards were written by the Washington State Bar As- sociation's Council on Public defense. They were written in an effort to improve the quality of public defense by making sure lawyers aren't overloaded with cases.

The standards were adopted last summer and largely went into effect on Sept. 1 this year. Caseload limit guidelines will go into effect Sept. 1, 2013.

The new restricted case- load requirements were not yet implemented with the rest of the standards in an attempt to allow public defenders an opportunity to take the nec- essary steps to compensate for monetary loss that could come with the restricted caseloads.

Caseload limits would cap a full-time public defense attorney or assigned counsel at any one or combination of the following case loads: 150 felonies, 300 misdemeanor, 250 juvenile, 250 civil com- mitment, one active death penalty or 36 appeals to an appellate court.

Burkhart said many of the new requirements are costly and the new standards will cause public defenders to change their business model dramatically. The new re- quirements will make public defense more standardized, Burkhart said. She added the system likely works well in larger counties with more public defenders, but the model will be difficult to ad- just to in Columbia County.

County Commissioner Dwight Robanske said he was concerned about Colum- bia County-contracted counsel exceeding these limits in the county.

Burkhart said her firm is not over case limits in Columbia County. However, her firm isn't just handling cases in Columbia County, which is where prob- lems will start to arise.

"It looks like the Colum- bia County caseload on aver- age is about 90 percent of one full-time equivalent (at- torney)," Burkhart said. "So we're not at risk of exceeding that."

The issue arises when multiple county caseloads and private practice work are added together, and all of these aspects of law are help- ful for a law firm to remain viable, Burkhart said.

Private cases are counted in addition to public defense cases, Slack said. Those private cases are necessary for the defense practices to remain feasible because they bring in more money to the firm.

Both offices are contract- ed with the county to receive $30,000 a year per law firm for Superior Court cases, and $24,000 a year per law firm for District Court cases, according to the commissioner's office.

Commissioner Richard Jones said the county budget is tight and will not have room to compensate for lost revenue by increasing de- fenders' salaries to keep them on contract.

While the new provisions were created with the intention of ensuring all appointed counsel is competent and has enough time for each case, commissioner Chairman Charles Reeves said he is concerned the new regula- tions are an infringement on the rights of public defenders.

"We're not in bad shape hellip; I think we're in good shape," Burkhart said. "We've got a good system here, we're happy here hellip; We're going to have to accommodate (the regulations) and it'll be a learning process."