Bucks County has the largest shortage of public defenders in the Philadelphia area

According to a University of Pennsylvania study published this year, there is a statewide shortage of public defenders, and Bucks County has the largest shortage in the Philadelphia area.

While Philadelphia, Chester and Delaware counties have enough or nearly enough criminal defense attorneys to meet the constitutionally protected right to a defense, Montgomery and Bucks counties have far fewer public defenders than they need, according to the study.

Bucks County had just 71% of the public defenders it needed, the UPenn analysis found, based on a staff of 25 at the time of the survey.

The county currently has 27 criminal defense attorneys who handle about 4,000 cases a year, according to data from the clerk of courts. Bucks County would need at least 35 attorneys to meet minimum public defender standards, researchers found, based on cases filed here between 2016 and 2022.

The head of the District Attorney’s Office, Niels Eriksen, also suggested 35 lawyers as the number he would need for adequate staffing, instead of the 31 lawyers his office is currently budgeted for.

The UPenn report suggests that a staff of 35 full-time attorneys would allow the firm to handle its caseload in 40 hours per week. But with four positions open, his team is feeling the pressure, Eriksen said. “There’s no such thing as forty hours in this office.”

When Eriksen took over as chief prosecutor in August, he was shocked by the workload, he said, even after decades as a criminal defense attorney.

In private practice, Eriksen averaged two hearings a day, he said. As a county public defender, that’s between six and 15 per day. “To spend time with the client, to review the evidence with the client, you have to be extremely efficient,” he said. “Bad decisions are made when the client is not as informed as the client could be.”

Montgomery County, which had only 72% of the public defenders it needed, according to the report, committed to hiring 15 new public defenders in August.

The county currently has 52 public defenders, a spokesperson said Friday. With 15 new attorneys, the firm could exceed the minimum requirement suggested in the UPenn report. The province will have hired four of the 15 new attorneys by November, the spokesperson said.

Bucks County is far from the worst offender when it comes to understaffed public defender offices: 91% of Pennsylvania counties with public defenders are understaffed, according to the UPenn report. Bedford County has only 15% of the public defenders it needs to provide proper legal representation. Northampton County, which borders Bucks, has just over half of the public defenders it needs.

More: Has crime increased in Bucks County? Some data may surprise you.

New state money for public defenders in Pennsylvania

Before 2023, Pennsylvania was one of only two states that did not provide poor people with legal defense funding, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in criminal cases. Bucks County was entitled to $104,497 from the state for indigent defense in 2023.

Still, ACLU-PA sued the state in June, arguing that the $7.5 million the state now provides is far less than the $125 million counties spend on indigent defense each year. “In some Pennsylvania counties, people who cannot afford a private attorney can be convicted without ever receiving counsel,” ACLU-PA wrote.

The new money Bucks received from the state last year wasn’t enough to hire a new attorney, Eriksen said, especially without the guarantee that funding would be renewed in 2024. New hires are paid about $63,000, which is less than the district attorney pays. , Eriksen said, making it harder to fill vacancies. So instead of hiring a new attorney, the public defender’s office spent that money on recruitment and retention bonuses, Eriksen said.

The latest state budget, adopted in July, provides the same funding for defense needs as the previous year.

While the new state funding hasn’t translated into new hires, money from a drug lawsuit has helped. Between 2022 and 2023, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office received more than $700,000 for its role in opioid lawsuits. The province will receive a total of $45 million over 18 years. In March of this year, Bucks County was one of the only counties to put some of that money into the public defender’s office. — approximately $106,000. The public defender’s office was able to add an attorney and a legal secretary with that funding, Eriksen said.

The District Attorney’s Office was better funded than the Bucks County Police Department

An internal study conducted in August using data from the clerk’s office found that two-thirds of all criminal cases in the county went through the Bucks County public defender’s office over the past two years, Eriksen said, compared to nearly 100 % for the district. law firm. The two-thirds figure does not include other legal matters where the public defender’s office handles almost all cases, Eriksen said, such as juvenile cases, alimony orders, probation violations and mental health obligations.

But the district attorney’s office receives three times as much money as the public defender’s office: $15.9 million this year, compared to $5.3 million for public defenders.

The county budget shows the district attorney’s office receives a number of state grants to address certain public safety issues, such as gun violence and fraud, which made up nearly $3 million of its revenue this year. The department also expected to recoup nearly $900,000 by charging people convicted of violations certain prosecution fees. The Public Defender’s Office does not receive any similar grants or recovery costs.

“Everyone is throwing money at the district attorney,” Eriksen said. “No one is throwing money at the public defender.”

Other prosecutors have argued that while public defenders may be underfunded, prosecutors need more funding in the first instance because the burden of proof needed to convict is higher. And while some counties — including Lebanon, which also has a shortage of public defenders — adopt equal pay for the salaries of attorneys in the DA’s office and the PD’s office, Bucks does not.

Comparing the district attorney’s staff to public defenders is “not an apples-to-oranges comparison,” the Bucks District Attorney’s office said Thursday, “as there are also private attorneys and appointed conflict consultants representing the suspects during these procedures.”

The district attorney’s office currently has 40 attorneys, compared to 27 for the public defender. In court, Eriksen said, that means four to five county attorneys facing only two to three public defenders. While Eriksen agrees the two offices don’t need identical staffing, two public defenders in a courtroom isn’t enough, he said.

What happens if there aren’t enough public defenders in PA?

The inequality is a problem for the system as a whole, Eriksen said. “The only way the public can have confidence in the criminal justice system is if a fully funded prosecutor competes with a fully funded public defender.”

When lawyers don’t have enough hours in the day to devote to a client, the lawyer’s personal life suffers, or the job suffers — usually both, says Megan Tidwell, head of Lebanon’s public defender who has faced a shortage in that province. which supported a 20% salary increase for entry-level lawyers in 2023. Sometimes “you’re in jail until 2 a.m.” Overworked attorneys can ask the judge for more time to prepare the case, but even if it is granted, it could mean the client is stuck in jail while the public defender prepares, Tidwell said. .

Criminal convictions, in turn, affect the outcome of civil cases, said Shawn Boehringer, executive director of Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, which provides free legal assistance in civil cases. “If you’re in jail, of course you’re going to lose your apartment,” Boehringer said, adding that convictions can also keep people from getting a job or custody of children. ‘If you have a criminal record it affects all these areas. of your life.”

Many of the public defender’s clients are between the ages of 18 and 29 and don’t realize that “if you don’t get adequate representation, you’re going to end up with a criminal record that’s going to haunt you,” Eriksen said. “Something you do in your twenties is go to influence you if you want to coach your kid’s soccer team.

Public defenders can also save money for the general public: one study shows that every dollar spent on public defense saves $14 in taxpayer dollars in corrections.

Public defender asks for more money from the county

The public defender’s office plans to ask the county for more funding next month, Eriksen said. His goal is to get three public defenders in courtrooms, where there are currently only two.

Bucks County commissioners have been “very receptive” in the past, he said, adding that the funding issue still lies with the state.

“We share District Attorney Eriksen’s view that the funding of his office is a state matter and severely limits the commissioners’ ability to consider requests for additional resources,” county spokesman Eric Nagy said. “Retention and recruitment are common challenges we face and we are working to improve at every level.”

Reporter Jess Rohan can be reached at [email protected].

Bucks County has the largest shortage of public defenders in the Philadelphia area

New state money for public defenders in Pennsylvania

The District Attorney’s Office was better funded than the Bucks County Police Department

What happens if there aren’t enough public defenders in PA?

Public defender asks for more money from the county

By Sheisoe

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Bucks County has the largest shortage of public defenders in the Philadelphia area

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