Missouri public defenders forced to accept cases
Overworked and underfunded, a Missouri public defense agency decided to stop taking cases to preserve the quality of the work that it was able to handle.
If you are accused of a crime in Missouri, and can't afford to hire a private criminal defense lawyer, you are entitled to a public defender. The catch is that the Missouri public defense system is the second least funded per capita system in the country. While public defenders in most states are overworked, the MO system is an extreme. Here's are quotes from a good article that discusses the ruling:
Appeals court says Missouri public defenders cannot refuse new cases - Kansas City Star: "A Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday that the state’s public defender system cannot decline to accept new cases because of its caseload crisis.
The opinion, from a three-judge panel in Kansas City, throws out a state regulation that allowed public defender offices to refuse cases until caseloads had declined to a more manageable level.
. . .
Missouri ranks 49th among U.S. states in per-capita spending on indigent defense. Offices in Kansas City and Liberty, which serve Jackson, Clay and Platte counties, have not stopped taking cases."
Here is the entire opinion from the Missouri Court of Appeals.
We'll see what happens at the Missouri Supreme Court level, but at the moment, if I were a public defender in Missouri I would think long and hard about going private. If I were accused of a crime in Missouri, I would not want a public defender, not because they are bad, but an overextended criminal defense attorney is just like a surgeon running on a week of no sleep... might be the best lawyer in the world, but presently lacks the capacity to do everything possible in every situation.
