Missouri State Public Defender System allowed to turn down cases

The change is because there are a large number of cases and lack of staff.

By Matt LaVeille

Published Oct. 3, 2008

A new Missouri state regulation, which allows the Missouri State Public Defender System to deny clients on a case-by-case basis because of a high number of cases, went into effect Wednesday, 

The Missouri State Public Defenders Office will begin refusing cases in Columbia, Jefferson City and Springfield starting this week because of the overload of cases. The types of cases that will be refused vary from office to office, but will include probation hearings, traffic crimes, misdemeanors and less serious crimes.

The Missouri State Public Defenders Office has not seen an increase in state funding, nor has it seen a measurable increase in staff since 2000. There are about 350 lawyers working in the Missouri public defender's office.

The 36 district offices in the trial division of the public defender's office each handle on average anywhere from 150 to 300 cases a month.

"The Missouri Public Defender System is the worst in the country in terms of funding," said J. Marty Robinson, director of the Missouri State Public Defender System. "We have some of the best defenders that you will find, but they just are not given the resources that they need, and it's a crying shame."

According to the Missouri Public Defender Web site, the job of a public defender is "to provide legal representation to all indigent persons accused or convicted of crimes and those whose liberty is jeopardized in sexually violent predator commitment proceedings at all levels of the state trial court, appellate court, Missouri Supreme Court, and the United States Supreme Court."

Although the new system is intended to help out with the number of cases coming into the public defenders office, it might not solve all the problems.

"If things go well with the new system, it will be a temporary solution, but will not come close to solving the problem," said Rod Hackathorn, District Defender for Judicial Circuit 31.

The Missouri public defenders are not able to effectively represent everyone at this time due to the large amount of people requiring a public defender and lack of lawyers to represent them, Hackathorn said.

"We keep getting more and more cases, but our funding and staff has remained the same," Hackathorn said. "Currently, we do not have the funding to hire more public defenders because Gov. [Matt] Blunt put a hiring freeze on all state agencies, including the public defenders office."

The Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association will meet Friday to set up a situation where if a case is declined by the public defenders office, volunteer lawyers will pick up the case.

"The judges, prosecutors, and private bar of the 31st Judicial Court of Greene County is an example of cooperation, they have agreed to take on some low level cases for free," Robinson said. "I hope the rest of the state follows so we will not have to have offices in a crisis."