Overworked throughout Kentucky, public defenders seek added funds

From the Daily News:

The average number of cases handled by public defenders in Kentucky remains above recommended maximum workloads, leaving public defenders to handle hundreds of cases each year.

That workload has stretched public defenders to the limit, officials say, and severely hampers the criminal justice system.

Additional funding from the state during the 2006 legislative session did help to lower the average caseload from 468.2 per defender in 2006 to 436.3 in 2007, according to Department of Public Advocacy statistics. But a 2005 DPA report recommended that caseloads should never exceed 400 new cases per lawyer per year.

Attorneys in the Bowling Green office have the 11th highest average workload of any office in the state at 421.3 for this year, according to DPA figures. That’s a bit better than in 2006, when the office handled an average of 433 cases.

The office did receive a new attorney through a grant program from the University of Kentucky, said Renee Tuck, directing attorney for the Bowling Green office; if it hadn’t, each public defender in the Bowling Green office would handle 468 cases, she said.

“That is a number I feel would be near impossible to serve properly,” Tuck said. “As it is now, we have the 11th highest caseload in the state, and we have had two new family court divisions and a new district court to serve. This stretches our manpower to the limits.”

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