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Public defenders and judiciary warn of indigent defense staffing crisis, arraignment and caseload strains
Summary
Judicial leaders and the New Hampshire Public Defenders described severe staffing and caseload pressures in indigent defense, gaps at arraignment, and mitigation steps including pro bono recruitment, clinical student clinics and proposed rule changes.
State judicial leaders and the New Hampshire Public Defenders told the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee that public defense services are under sustained strain, producing constitutionally significant gaps in counsel and serious workload pressures.
“Since 2010, [the Public Defender’s Office] has had a 262 percent increase in its retention, dropping in retention,” the chief justice said while describing growing caseload complexity driven in part by electronic evidence. The chief justice also cited a Judicial Council report and said a March 2024 Legal Briefing Association (LBA) finding showed that between 20 and 40 incarcerated defendants lacked attorneys and between about 100 and 125 non‑incarcerated defendants lacked counsel at that snapshot.
Suzanne Ketteridge, interim executive director of the New Hampshire Public Defenders (NHPD), said the…
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