National Public Defense Workload Study
NICHOLAS M. PACE, MALIA N. BRINK, CYNTHIA G. LEE, STEPHEN F. HANLON
Abstract
The rules of professional conduct require lawyers to limit their workloads to ensure competent representation.1 But what should those limits be? Clear standards for public defender workloads are essential to policymakers’ ability to fund and staff the defense function at appropriate levels, to public defense authorities’ ability to monitor and manage caseloads, and to attorneys’ ability to provide their clients with effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. To create such standards, we conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of the 17 statelevel public defense workload studies conducted between 2005 and 2022, and then employed the Delphi method (a quantitative research technique used for the elicitation of expert opinions) to facilitate the efforts of a panel of expert criminal defense attorneys to come to a consensus on the average amount of time needed to provide reasonably effective assistance of counsel in an array of adult criminal cases. The results of this study are new national public defense workload standards, which are intended to assist governmental bodies, public defense attorneys, policymakers, and other stakeholders in evaluating defender workloads and ensuring adequate representation. Our results are primarily applicable to locations or for purposes where jurisdictionally focused workload standards have not already been produced, in situations where earlier work did not adequately consider applicable ethics rules and practice standards, or in situations where existing studies may be outdated or otherwise flawed. These new standards build on the methods developed in, and data gleaned from, prior statelevel workload studies. The standards also reflect the expert attorneys’ experience with modern criminal defense practice, including the tremendous expansion of digital discovery from bodyworn cameras, cell phone data, and social media data; the increasing use of forensic evidence; and the expanding scope of a criminal defense lawyer’s obligations, such as advising clients on the collateral consequences that attend criminal convictions.
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Community Reviews
kayo
12/12/2025
No rating
- under the national advisory commission on criminal justice standards & goals, public defenders can handle an immense amount of cases (ex. 150 felony cases/yr) - a public defender working 2,080hrs annually should be capped at 7 cases