Cap Criminal Defense Caseloads

Justification

In Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) the Supreme Court of the United States held that the 6th Amendment Right to Counsel required States to assign defense attorneys to defendants charged with serious offenses and who could not afford counsel. This constitutional holding was subsequently extended to require States to provide counsel to cases where criminal conviction could lead to imprisonment. In Gideon, the Court held that the assignment of counsel was essential to a fair trial and a constitutional right of the accused which States can not abridge.

Judith Kaye, former Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals was appointed to head a commission to review indigent criminal defense in the State of New York. In 2006, The New York State Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Representation concluded that "(t)he indigent defense system in New York State is both severely dysfunctional and structurally incapable of providing each poor defendant with the effective legal representation that he or she is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the State of New York." The Commission also affirmed that the excessive number of cases assigned to public defenders has a direct impact on representation.

In 2009, the New York State Legislature passed and Governor Patterson signed into law "case caps" for public defenders in New York City. Through the Office of Court Administration, the Legislature supplemented NYC's indigent defense budget to effectuate an Appellate Division Rule which limited annual criminal defense attorney caseloads to 400 misdemeanors or 150 felonies, with felonies counted as 2.66 misdemeanors in mixed caseloads. In 2015, The Center for Court Innovation released a report titled An Analysis of Mandatory Case Caps and Attorney Workloads, concluding that mandatory cases caps substantially improved the quality of representation in Kings County.

In October 2014, Judge Kaye's warning of an on-going crisis came to fruition as the New York Civil Liberties Union and the law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP announced a historic settlement that overhauled public defense in five New York counties and paved the way for statewide reform of New York's broken public defense system. By entering into the agreement, the state took responsibility for providing public defense for the first time since the Supreme Court of the United States decided Gideon v. Wainwright. In Hurrell-Harring v. New York, the plaintiffs charged that New York State's decision to abdicate responsibility for public defense to its counties resulted in a patchwork of often understaffed, poorly resourced and largely dysfunctional public defense systems where defendants were routinely arraigned without attorneys, urged to take plea bargains regardless of the facts of their cases, burdened by excessively high bail, and incarcerated for shockingly long periods for misdemeanors and petty crimes. The suit contended that by failing to provide poor defendants with adequate representation, New York State was violating the U.S. Constitution, the state constitution and the laws of New York.

New York settled on the eve of trial. Under the agreement, the state adopted major reforms focusing on five New York counties Ontario, Onondaga (Syracuse), Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington - that were chosen because their public defense systems are all different and cover communities large and small, but are all emblems of New York's flawed approach. The agreement, which will last 7 years, contained, among other provisions, requirements for the setting of caseload standards that will substantially limit the number of cases any lawyer can carry, thereby ensuring that poor criminal defendants get a real defense.

In the 2017 state budget, New York finally implemented reforms to the public defender system by strengthening the Office of Indigent Legal Services and applying the lessons learned from Hurrell-Harring statewide. The budget instructed the Office of Indigent Legal Services to devise plans to provide counsel at all arraignments, improve the training and supervision of public defenders, and set caseload caps. The State will reimburse counties for the costs of implementing these plans, subject to approval of the plans by the Division of the Budget.

Although the prime sponsor of this bill supports a complete state takeover of indigent defense services, the financial restraints of the state and the historic funding of legal services by counties and the city of New York would make a complete state takeover unlikely.

This legislation will ensure that the Office of Indigent Legal Services aggressively pursues caseload caps that will allow public defenders to devote sufficient time and energy to each case. The standards must not be more than 367 misdemeanors or 138 felonies per year. With the state funding available to achieve these goals, local governments can truly achieve transformational success in their public defense systems.

Legislative history

2015-16: S.7481/A.10374(Lentol) - Referred to Local Government

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.