Council on Public Defense outlines new indigent-defense standards and warns of staffing, funding shortfalls

Maya Vanyo, chair of the Council on Public Defense, told the Board of Governors on March 24 that the council has drafted updated Bar standards for indigent defense and forwarded them for review, and that “Phase 1 of the BARS Standards of Indigent Defense goes into effect 07/01/2025.”

The update matters because the council says the revised standards adopt recommendations from the National Public Defense Workload Study and set minimum workload and qualification expectations that local public defense systems and individual attorneys will be expected to meet. Vanyo said the CPD’s standards committee will report any further recommendations to the full council at its April 18 meeting and that approved recommendations would then be forwarded to the Board of Governors and the Washington Supreme Court for action.

The Council on Public Defense (CPD) — a volunteer body that includes public defenders, administrators, judges, prosecutors and academics — drafted the standards after being asked by the Washington Supreme Court in October 2023 to study the National Public Defense Workload Study. According to Vanyo, the CPD approved the standards in March 2024, and the Board of Governors approved new appellate and…