Opinion ID: 1788578
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: State and National Standards

Text: Considerable expert evidence and documentary evidence was presented on the standards which have been adopted by state and national groups. Because similar problems have been faced before, attempts have been made to reach a consensus on just how many cases a public defender should be able to handle in one year. In addition, nonnumerical standards have been adopted. The workload standard adopted by the American Bar Association is Standard 5-5.3, Workload which provides as follows: (a) Neither defender organizations, assigned counsel nor contractors for services should accept workloads that, by reason of their excessive size, interfere with the rendering of quality representation or lead to the breach of professional obligations. Special consideration should be given to the workload created by representation in capital cases. (b) Whenever defender organizations, individual defenders, assigned counsel or contractors for services determine, in the exercise of their best professional judgment, that the acceptance of additional cases or continued representation in previously accepted cases will lead to the furnishing of representation lacking in quality or to the breach of professional obligations, the defender organization, individual defender, assigned counsel or contractor for services must take such steps as may be appropriate to reduce their pending or projected caseloads, including the refusal of further appointments. Courts should not require individuals or programs to accept caseloads that will lead to the furnishing of representation lacking in quality or to the breach of professional obligations. Workload as used in this standard, is to be distinguished from the more narrow term caseload. Caseload is the number of cases assigned to an attorney at any given time. Workload is the sum of all work performed by the individual attorney at any given time, which includes the number of cases to which the attorney is assigned, but also includes other tasks for which that attorney is responsible. The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals developed standards in 1973 which remain in effect and are numerical in nature. These standards recommend that an attorney such as a public defender handle no more than twenty-five appeals per year. The standard of the National Advisory Commission is contained at Courts 13.12 (1973) as follows: 150 felonies per attorney per year; or 400 misdemeanors per attorney per year; or 200 juvenile cases per attorney per year; or 200 mental commitment cases per attorney per year; or 25 appeals per attorney per year. These standards were recently endorsed by the American Bar Association Committee studying the criminal justice system with only slight modifications. See ABA, Special Committee on Criminal Justice in a Free Society, Criminal Justice in Crisis, 43 (1989). The State of Florida promulgated a workload measurement system called the Florida Funding Formula. This formula was designed to determine staffing needs and budgetary requirements for Public Defenders and, at fifty appeals per year, these were the highest standards in the country. They provided that a Public Defender is assumed to be able to handle the following annual caseloads: 8 capital felonies; or 200 noncapital felonies; or 250 juvenile; or 250 mental health; or 5 capital appeals; or 50 noncapital appeals. These standards are contained in a publication by the Office of the State Court Administrator, State Attorney  Public Defender Workload Project: Descriptive Information and Circuit Profile (Florida Supreme Court January 1981). The Florida Bench/Bar Commission recently adopted the Florida Public Defender Association's maximum annual caseload standards in its recommendations to the Supreme Court of Florida. The current caseload standards are as follows: 3 capital felonies; or 200 noncapital felonies; or 400 criminal traffic cases; or 400 misdemeanor cases; or 250 juvenile cases; or 250 mental health cases. The Commission recommended criminal and appellate procedure rule changes setting maximum caseload standards. See The Necessities of the Times  Facing Challenges in the Legal System; The Report of the Bench/Bar Commission, A Commission Created by the Supreme Court of Florida and The Florida Bar, January 1993. In preparation for this hearing, Mr. Robert Spangenberg, an attorney and expert on the indigent defense crisis and the provision of legal services to indigent defendants, did a survey of other states and testified to a representative sampling of briefs filed per attorney. In the majority of states, attorneys file between twenty and thirty initial briefs per year. None of the surveyed states do more than fifty cases per year: Ohio 27 California 26 North Carolina 30 Hawaii 12 Washington 42 New York 20 to 22 Illinois 24 Michigan 36 Colorado 24 New Hampshire 20 to 25 Massachusetts 20 Arizona 25