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Lynnwood public defense contractor warns new Supreme Court caseload standards will require more attorneys and earlier contracting
Summary
The city—ontract public defender, Feldman Lee, told the Lynnwood City Council that a Washington Supreme Court push for case-weighting standards and a 10% annual workload reduction will require the city to increase staffing and consider an early contract start in September to avoid gaps in representation.
Attorney Patrick Feldman, supervisor for Feldman Lee, told the Lynnwood City Council on Aug. 11 that changes the Washington State Supreme Court is pushing for will reduce the number of cases a public defender can carry and increase the measured workload for many case types.
"Everyone who is arrested for a crime has a right to an attorney," Feldman said, summarizing the constitutional baseline that is driving urgency around staffing. He told the council that the Supreme Court has signaled a 10% annual reduction in individual caseload allowances and is pressing jurisdictions to adopt case-weighting standards that count more time for many case types.
The change matters because Lynnwood and its contract provider currently measure cases as "1" regardless of complexity; under the proposed weighting some matters would count as more than 1 case. Feldman said his analysis shows a roughly 15% increase in case-weighted workload once those standards are applied, which compounds the impact of the 10% reduction in allowable caseloads per attorney.
Why…
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