Oregon Defense Lawyers Are Needed, New Report Says State Lacking

PORTLAND, OR — Oregon is in the middle of a criminal justice crisis, according to a new report. The state has less than one-third of the public defenders needed to provide adequate representation to those who need it.

That's the conclusion of a new report, The Oregon Project, paid for by the state legislature. The report was written by a committee of the American Bar Association that worked with the accounting firm Moss Adams, one of the largest in the country.

The report concluded that Oregon only has 31 percent of the public defenders that it needs for lawyers to do the work that their clients need.

"For far too long, public defenders have raised concerns that their caseloads do not permit them to give appropriate time and attention to each client," the report states. "Overwhelming caseloads force even excellent public defenders to cut corners. They must either triage, focusing on a select group of clients at the expense of the others, or they must spend less time than they should on every client’s case.

"They cannot conduct full investigations, consult experts when appropriate, or adequately prepare motions and arguments. These conditions create a heightened risk of error. "

According to the report, each of the 562 public defenders in Oregon would need to spend 6,632 hours each year working on case-specific work – that means they have to spend 26.6 hours each working day.

The report recommends spending more money on hiring and investing in a centralized data system to make meaningful oversight an attainable goal.

Read the whole report here.