After years of warnings about case overloads, Missouri’s public defender system has dropped the hammer.

The statewide agency that provides legal representation for indigent Missourians charged with crimes is notifying court officials in two judicial circuits that it will stop accepting cases Sept. 1.

To be affected are the four-county judicial circuit that includes Jefferson City, and a three-county circuit in southern Missouri. But all circuits, including those in the Kansas City area, could soon be confronted with a refusal by overworked public defenders to take on more cases.

States are constitutionally obligated to provide counsel to indigent defendants charged with crimes that could result in jail time.
Missouri’s public defender system accepted nearly 90,000 new cases last year. Most were handled by staff attorneys, with a smaller number contracted to lawyers in private practice.

Full-time public defenders in Missouri average close to 300 cases a year — twice the number recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The heavy caseloads and low pay — salaries start at $37,296 a year — produce high turnover among public defenders, which costs taxpayers and often delays justice for crime victims, as well as perpetrators.

Long-term neglect by Missouri lawmakers and governors has created a crisis.

Cathy Kelly, deputy director of the Missouri State Public Defender System, says refusal by public defender offices to assign counsel to indigent defendants will force judges and prosecutors to make choices.

Judges can assign private attorneys to handle cases and bill the state. They can place cases on waiting lists until a public defender becomes available. Prosecutors could reduce charges so that a defendant no longer risks jail time.

But those are stop-gap measures. The state must stop shirking its responsibility for indigent defense.

The system needs an infusion of cash. And the governor’s office must drop its insistence that additional funds be used to pay for private attorneys, instead of hiring staff.

Full-time public defenders handle cases for about $325 on average; the state pays attorneys in private practice about double that amount.

The best long-term solution is a statute that sets reasonable caseload limits and commits the necessary funds.

Lawmakers have heard for years that the public defender system needs help. It shouldn’t take a crisis in the state’s courthouses to make them listen.