Some Costs of Bringing Current Public Defense System into Compliance with Standards Revealed in New Report

ALBANY, NY (12/12/2013)(readMedia)-- A new report quantifying the impossible caseloads facing public defenders across Upstate New York estimates that fixing the problem would cost more than $111 million annually.

The report, An Estimate of the Cost of Compliance with Maximum National Caseload Limits in Upstate New York, uses a careful methodology and accepted national standards to arrive at this conservative estimate. The New York State Indigent Legal Services [(ILS) Office] issued the report on December 11, 2013, and sent it to county and city officials as well as to public defense providers.

Among the findings: in 71 institutional public defense offices in upstate New York attorneys had average caseloads of 719 while national standards call for no more than 400. "The purpose of caseload limits," the report notes, "is to establish the minimum conditions under which it is possible to provide adequate representation to clients." And as readers of the report will see, too often in New York, those minimum conditions do not exist.

Jonathan E. Gradess of the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) welcomed the new report stating, "This report issued in the 50th anniversary year of the decision in Gideon v Wainwright shows how badly New York is failing to meet Gideon's promise – no lawyer can investigate a case, learn the client's story, and prepare and execute competent representation when that lawyer has twice or three times as many cases to handle as time will allow."

Coming on the heels of caseload litigation in Washington State where a federal court, in Wilbur v City of Mount Vernon, decried similar burgeoning caseloads and will be appointing an independent monitor, the report is timely due to the pending lawsuit against New York State and five counties. The New York suit (Hurrell-Harring v New York State) details shocking unconstitutional deficiencies in the representation offered to people who can't afford to hire a lawyer. "The numbers in the ILS report," Gradess continued, "make clear why New York State should settle Hurrell-Harring in an effective, cost-efficient way by creating a new system that will be better for clients and for counties, and will meet the State's constitutional responsibilities using State dollars wisely."

The New York State Defenders Association, whose mission is to improve the quality and scope of publicly supported legal representation to low income people, supports creation of an independent, fully and adequately state funded statewide public defender system.