Public Defenders
Delaware PD Notes Puzzling Trend: Fewer Cases
Posted Nov 6, 2009, 09:17 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Delaware public defender Brendan O'Neill noted a puzzling trend during a budget hearing on Thursday: a lower caseload.
O’Neill noted "a very slight downward trend" in the number of indigent defendants requesting public defenders, the News Journal reports. "At this point, it looks like we're not in a growth industry, and that's a good thing," he said.
The trend goes against the conventional wisdom that crime goes up during an economic downturn, translating into more requests for public defenders, he said. "It's a puzzle to us."
Despite the small drop in cases, public defenders in many of the state’s courts handle caseloads as high as double the ABA standard, he said.
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