KENNEWICK, Wash. – March changes made by the Washington State Bar Association will impact public defenders over a three year period.
On March 8, the WSBA outlined revisions to it’s public defender rules, the one affecting public defenders the most being caseload limits. A caseload is defined as the total number of cases that a public defender is assigned in a 12-month period.
The revision will see caseloads drop over a three year period. The first, beginning July 2025, will will see each felony attorney receive no more than 110 felony case credits, and each misdemeanor attorney receiving no more than 280 case credits.
Beginning July 2026, that case limit load will go down to 90 felony case credits and 225 misdemeanor case credits. By July 2027, the number of case credits for felonies will not exceed 47, and misdemeanors not exceed 120.
Case credits are determined by the severity of the case, for instance, a felony high-murder is 5 credits, whereas a misdemeanor high is 1.5. So, by 2027, an attorney could only take nine high-murder felony cases, or 80 high misdemeanor cases.
Charlie Dow, the Manager at Benton County Public Defender’s Office, says that the new implementation will be costly.
“So by 2027, every county in the state, every jurisdiction in the state, that provides public defense, is going to have to figure out how to have three more attorneys for every attorney they have now,” says Dow.
This is already amidst a public defender crisis in Washington State.
“Some library books are treated better than public defenders,” said Dow.
Larry Jefferson, the Director at The Washington State Public Defense Office, offered his insight into why there aren’t many public defenders.
“You don’t do this job because you want to make money… you do this job because you want to help people,” said Jefferson.
Dow says that the state could do more for Washington’s counties, whether that be providing more office space for future defenders or investing more into their practices.
