Public defenders urge more lawyers, caution workload strains amid rising evidence and mental‑health demands

Kevin Kyra, chief administrator for the Board of Public Defense, and Bill Ward, the state public defender, told the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee that the public defense system faces rising workload and complexity driven by massive increases in digital evidence, scientific testing, and mental‑health and substance‑use related cases.

Kyra described the board as an independent entity in the judicial branch that appoints the state public defender, allocates legislative funding, and sets operational standards. He said the board’s annual budget is roughly $164,000,000 and that about 90% of that budget pays district‑level public defenders and related direct services.

The Board of Public Defense outlined several pressures: - A lean staffing model: roughly 1,000 total staff statewide, about 600 assistant public defenders and approximately 155 part‑time defenders (local private attorneys working part‑time on public defense), with 97% of the budget directed to client services, Kyra said. - Caseload standards and time per case unit: Kyra said the board’s 1991 caseload standard gives attorneys approximately 4.5 hours per case unit (roughly equivalent to a misdemeanor) to complete required tasks. He cited a 2023 RAND study of national standards showing the board’s existing standard is frequently two to three times higher than the RAND national benchmark. - Evidence volume: Kyra said the board handled roughly 280 terabytes of audio/video data in 2023 and the same amount in the first half of 2024 (Hennepin County had not yet been fully on the system), and he described storage, review time and transcription as growing burdens.

Budget requests described to the committee included: - A staffing request to reduce caseloads by about 15% over two years, associated with figures Kyra cited as $14,300,000 and $24,600,000 (presented on the handout as the two‑biennium amounts). - Personnel cost funding to maintain salary parity with county attorneys: figures cited on the handout were $11,900,000 and $24,300,000 (two biennia) to sustain parity and reduce turnover; Kyra said the overall package would add about 88 new lawyers around the state and associated support staff. - Kyra said the overall request represented roughly a 13% increase over the branch’s starting base for the two‑year period.

Ward and Kyra described operational consequences of current workloads: training and retaining lawyers is difficult when experienced attorneys leave because of excessive caseloads; professional‑responsibility complaints have risen as practitioners operate under time pressure; and the expansion of scientific evidence and digital materials increases time spent per case. Kyra said the board is working on revised caseload standards and exploring technological and transcription solutions, including AI‑assisted transcription, while recognizing those are longer‑term efforts.

Committee members asked about the public defense corporations that receive legislative appropriations (nonprofit entities that handle some cases), immigration‑related cases and the process for screening eligibility for public defenders. Kyra said the four public defense corporations named in statute can apply for funding and that the board follows statutory and appropriations guidance for those awards. On immigration referrals, Ward said the office has one lawyer handling immigration matters in the appellate office and that the office collects and can provide statistics on those referrals on request.

Members asked for additional data on caseload composition, immigration‑related cases, severity of charges, and long‑term trends. Kyra and Ward offered to supply follow‑up figures and handouts that accompanied the presentation.