Missouri Public Defender System May Stop Accepting New Clients


    Feb. 26, 2007
    The Associated Press
    By Jim Salter

    ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Public defenders in Missouri are so overworked that the state commission that oversees them may move to stop accepting new clients.

    A member of the Missouri Public Defenders Commission and one of the state's top public defenders said today they weren't sure what will happen to indigent clients if the system stops taking on new cases. The courts would have to decide, said Cathy Kelly of St. Louis, deputy director of the Missouri Public Defender System.

    Last week, the commission narrowly turned down what one member dubbed the "nuclear option," according to the publication Missouri Lawyers Weekly. Instead, the commission voted to meet Friday to again consider a halt to new clients until caseloads decrease.

    Missouri's 350 public defenders are appointed cases for defendants who cannot afford their own attorneys. They handle nearly 90,000 cases a year, an increase of 12,000 over the last six years, according to a report issued in January by the Senate Interim Committee on the Missouri State Public Defender System. That report said the system is in "crisis mode."

    About 80 percent of all defendants in Missouri are represented by public defenders. Kelly said the average public defender in Missouri handles nearly 300 cases per year.

    "We did the math and they basically can spend about six hours per case, whether it's a misdemeanor or a murder case," Kelly said.

    The growing caseload is spurred in part by an increase in cases outstate. Kelly said counties that used to employ part-time prosecutors have gone to full-time attorneys, resulting in more criminal prosecutions.

    But the problem isn't confined to rural areas. In St. Louis, the overworked public defender system has been called the weak link in the effort to crack down on crime in a city dubbed last year as the most dangerous in the U.S.

    The Senate committee report said that largely because of caseload, turnover among public defenders is high -- about 20 percent per year. Low pay is also a problem -- the starting wage for a Missouri public defender is $34,000, and even veterans handling capital punishment cases top out in the mid-$60,000s, Kelly said.

    Last year, the American Bar Association wrote that public defenders, despite their enormous caseload, are not exempt from ethical obligations of providing adequate representation for their clients.

    In December, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers wrote an article about the ramifications of that ruling. Miller Leonard, a Kansas City-area lawyer and a member of the Public Defenders Commission, said that article raised concerns about possible lawsuits against public defenders.

    "I don't know what's going to happen Friday," Leonard said. "We'll see."

    Commissioner Eric Barnhart did not return a phone call seeking comment. But in the Missouri Lawyers Weekly article, he said there would be ramifications, too, if the system stops accepting clients.

    "What happens if a judge in some jurisdiction puts the district defender in contempt?" he asked. "We have to have a plan in place ... this is like the nuclear option."

    The Senate committee said options the state could consider to ease the strain on the system include instituting a court cost to provide additional funding, and contracting with private attorneys to reduce the caseload on public defenders.



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