He and a car full of co-workers were headed to lunch and passed a video store advertising for a manager. That job paid $36,000 — at the time, more than he or the other assistant public defenders were making with a law degree. Public defenders represent poor people who can't afford to hire an attorney to fight their criminal charges.

"We could quit our jobs and go work at the video mart for more money," he said.

The anecdote illustrates part of the problem Missouri's public defender system faces. While few attorneys may leave law to ring up the hottest DVDs, many do bail after a few years because they can earn much more in private practice.

When that happens, the justice system slows down, as the remaining public defenders get new cases added to their workload and court dates are pushed back for them to get up to speed.

Starting salary for an assistant public defender is about $35,000, acting state public defender Cathy Kelly said.

A special legislative committee studying the issue is considering loan forgiveness programs to encourage public defenders to stick around if some of their law school debts are paid off.

Another major concern, Carver and Kelly say, is that public defenders are being forced to handle too many cases.

Kelly said the state should hire more public defenders, make more use of private attorneys for minor charges or change the law to disqualify some crimes from possible jail time and hence the right to a public defender.

The average public defender juggled nearly 300 cases last year, she said. The nationally accepted standard is about 225 cases, Kelly said.

The American Bar Association also recently said public defenders, like their private counterparts, must refuse cases if they believe they have too many to competently represent their clients.

While Missouri's system hasn't gone that far, Kelly said she worries it could if something isn't done.

"One of the huge problems in Missouri is that there is no safety valve," Kelly said. "There is no mechanism for us to refuse cases and have anybody else pick them up."

Contracting with private attorneys to handle minor misdemeanor cases would free up public defenders to focus on serious crimes. But the state used to rely more on private attorneys, Kelly said, and determined it was cheaper to use state attorneys.

Helping to ease the crunch is a Missouri Bar effort to get private lawyers to volunteer for traffic cases referred to the public defender's office.

Doug Copeland, who just completed his term as president of the bar, said more than 300 lawyers statewide have volunteered since the initiative began in March 2005.

"We realize that doesn't solve the problem," Copeland said. "... But it was at least to show some support for the assistant public defenders handling these cases."

Copeland, who also leads a Missouri Bar task force looking at public defenders, said an outside assessment is necessary of how many cases a public defender really can handle. From that, he said, it would be simple to determine how many more staff members are needed.

Sen. Jack Goodman, for example, said he wasn't sure what the study would add to information the Senate Interim Committee on the Missouri State Public Defender System already has.

Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, is leading the panel. It must offer recommendations by late January.

Goodman, a former assistant prosecutor, said hiring more public defenders is likely part of the answer.