Lancaster County Public Defender Workload Assessment

Just outcomes in the criminal justice system require capable counsel for both the state and the defendant. As caseloads rise, attorneys can and do work faster. However, there is a cost: rising caseloads ultimately mean attorneys will spend less time on each case, therefore aversely impacting both defendants and the legal system. The challenge that emerges for the Public Defender’s Office is to provide attorneys sufficient time to meaningfully meet constitutional guarantees for effective assistance of counsel.

The problem of increasing caseloads is a nationwide issue. As a recent ethics opinion survey issued by the American Bar Association indicates, simply asking attorneys to shoulder larger caseloads without being able to spend sufficient time with clients is not acceptable. It is important to assess caseloads to make sure that attorney workload does not undermine the delivery of quality services. However, simply because more cases come before a legal office is not, in and of itself, evidence that attorneys’ caseloads are too large. What needs to be determined is whether the caseload is appropriate in light of the complexity of the caseload.

This assessment provides two distinct products. First, the assessment provides a measure of workload for the Lancaster County Public Defender Office. This will serve as a template for assessing current (and future) caseloads as well as provide a sound and methodologically consistent basis to determine resource needs. The second product of the assessment is a set of recommended caseload standards, designed to ensure that attorneys have sufficient time to meet constitutional guarantees for effective counsel.