Defender General asks appropriations panel to preserve contracts, restore training funds as caseloads rise

Defender General Matt Valerio told the Vermont Senate Committee on Appropriations on Oct. 12 that his office’s governor-recommended FY 2026 budget largely continues current service levels but leaves gaps that could worsen a growing case backlog and create local service disruptions.

Valerio said the recommendation preserves funding for staff salaries and benefits and includes a 2% increase for assigned-counsel contracts, but he asked the committee to restore a requested 4% increase for those contracts and to provide $60,000 to resume in-person training for public defenders. "Please give me the $60,000 I need so that I can train my people," Valerio said.

The request matters because Valerio described a sustained rise in cases: fiscal 2024 saw a 7% statewide increase in people the office represents, and the first quarter of fiscal 2025 showed another 6% rise. He told the committee the courts’ clearance rate for criminal cases recently fell to 89%, meaning backlog grew; only four counties made progress on backlog during the period he cited. "We can't turn cases away," Valerio said, describing constitutional and statutory obligations that require the defender office to accept assigned cases.

Valerio outlined several drivers of workload and cost pressure. Probation-violation cases have jumped dramatically — he cited roughly a 60% increase statewide for that category over the period he reviewed — and termination of parental-rights cases in the family docket rose by more than 40% and demand substantial time and resources. He also described geographic imbalances: Chittenden County accounts for about 39% of total caseload and saw large increases; some rural areas in the Northeast Kingdom remain difficult to staff with contract defenders.

Contracts are central to Valerio’s cost and staffing plan. He said Vermont’s mix of primary public-defense contracts, staffed offices and conflict/assigned counsel was intentionally developed to limit the use of expensive ad-hoc counsel; he reported ad-hoc work now represents under 2% of conflict work, down from about 30% historically. Valerio also provided per‑lawyer-equivalent cost comparisons he uses internally: roughly $183,000 per LEC for primary public-defense contracts, $302,000 per LEC for staff offices and about $671,000 per LEC for ad-hoc conflict work.

Valerio warned of two potential one-time or near-term budget hits the committee has not yet funded in the governor’s recommendation. First, one of the primary public-defense contractors in Orleans County retired and three finalists were under negotiation; if those negotiations fail he said the office would need to open a staffed office in Orleans, which he estimated could cost about $250,000 more than maintaining services via a contractor. Second, an Addison County landlord chose not to renew a lease, forcing an unexpected move. Valerio said one-time setup and security costs for a new Addison County office could be about $50,000 and the new lease will raise annual rent by roughly $20,000.

Valerio also described an ongoing technology and records-cost issue tied to increasing volumes of digital evidence (video and audio). He said the office built a private data storage solution that he estimates has saved roughly $750,000 a year and nearly $4 million over four years compared with cloud-hosting costs. He told the committee additional server capacity will be needed to keep those savings and to handle continuing growth in file size and access costs.

On recruitment and workforce capacity, Valerio said Vermont produces very few new lawyers locally (he cited fewer than 10 graduates annually from the state law school in recent years) and the office struggles to compete with regional private-sector pay. He described long open vacancies — several entry-level posts were open for nearly a year — and said the office recruited attorneys from out of state when necessary. Those hiring challenges, he said, complicate efforts to reduce the backlog.

Valerio flagged two specific shortfalls in the governor’s recommendation: the assigned-counsel increase (2% recommended versus 4% requested) produces a roughly $57,000 gap he would like the committee to close, and training funding he has repeatedly sought since the pandemic remains unfunded (he requested $60,000). He also noted a structural revenue issue: the public defender special fund has annual spending authority of $598,000 but typically collects far less; Valerio said collections for the fund have been well below the spending limit and left his office starting the fiscal year with about a $275,000 gap to manage.

He closed by asking committee members to consider the incremental requests and to note that maintaining and funding the existing contract network is the most cost‑effective way, in his view, to preserve statewide coverage and control backlog growth. No formal votes or committee actions were recorded at the end of his presentation.