A deputy public defender in the Mountain Home office asked Circuit Judge John Putman not to appoint a number of defendants to him during Monday’s court session, citing the large number of existing cases he’s already handling.
Deputy Public Defender James Wallace told the judge he now provides legal representation for defendants in about 400 cases, and the large load prevents him from offering existing clients adequate representation, as guaranteed by the constitution.
According to media reports, other public defender offices in the state, including the 6th Judicial District in Little Rock, are bringing up the issue. The problem of growing caseloads in public defender offices around the state has been around for 20 plus years.
The staffing situation causes friction between reality and the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The amendment guarantees all citizens the right to have effective assistance of council, whether they hire a private attorney or, if unable to pay attorney fees, rely on a public defender.
It has also been brought up in a number of states that it is an ethical violation when an attorney continues to take on additional cases, preventing the lawyer from providing “effective council” to his clients.
There are a number of recommendations on the number of cases one lawyer can handle and still give all clients the type of representation to which they are entitled.
The major recommendations seem to be in the 140-150-range for felony cases. Wallace told the court he had 408 cases as of a recent count.
Judge Putman continued to assign cases to the public defender’s office Monday, but said Wallace should contact the Public Defender Commission in Little Rock to see if other attorneys could be assigned to the Mountain Home office.
The judge noted Wallace’s objection to being assigned additional cases in each instance, but said he was appointing the public defender’s office to represent qualified individuals, not Wallace specifically.
“Hopefully the public defender commission’s office will be able to provide some assistance in handling what is a large and growing caseload,” Judge Putman said.
And, the caseload is growing, not diminishing. Almost 20 felony criminal cases were added to the docket recently.
There were several part-time deputy public defenders in the Mountain Home office at one time, but they have left for various reasons – leaving Wallace basically the lone attorney currently in the Mountain Home office to carry the load.
The statewide public defender agency was created by the Arkansas Legislature in 1993. In 1997, new legislation was enacted to enable the state to begin taking over more the of the funding of the statewide system.
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