The caseload continues to increase for the public defender’s office and with that comes an increase in funds for contract services.
At a recent meeting of the county commissioners, the board agreed to a 3% increase in the contract with the office. The increase would add about $17,000 to the existing agreement, bringing the total from $574,200 to just over $591,400.
Matt Weller, president of the Public Defender Commission, said the group agrees with the defender’s office ask.
He said the contract overall hasn’t changed much, it just reflects the increases in caseload.
“We were in agreement with that recommendation at the commission after listening to the statistics and seeing that continuous increase in the caseload and referrals,” he said. “Judge (Don) Fraser was on board. I think he really likes how this system works – Judge (Rick) Roger as well. It seems to work.”
Perry Parsons, who runs the public defender’s office, said the caseload has increased steadily over the years.
“Caseload-wise, we were up,” he said. “We were a little bit down in common pleas, we were very high up in juvenile court but overall it’s about a 7% increase from 2022.”
Lately, he said the typical increase year to year is around 10%.
“Given our case increase, if we could get around a 3% increase, I could keep running,” Parsons said.
He said his office is looking at more than a 1,000 cases a year, which are divvied up among several attorneys in the area.
“The client shows up to court and wants an attorney. They fill out the financial form and submit it to the clerk. The clerk sends all of those to my office. I sign contracts with local attorneys that agree to do certain cases out of each court and we appoint those cases,” Parsons said. “They come to me and I send them out to the attorneys and the attorneys do the work.”
He said the benefit of doing it that way is that the attorneys work as independent contractors and that lessens the amount of conflicts.
The office has run that way since 1998, he said, when the nonprofit was initially set up.
“There are three ways to do court-appointed cases in Ohio, either the courts just call case by case and get attorneys to agree to do it, a full-time public defender’s office or a nonprofit,” Parsons said. “With us all being separate, I can appoint attorneys to each of the parties and not have to have the court get involved.”
To pay for those attorneys, the county advances the funds to the public defender’s office but then gets reimbursed through the state’s public defender’s office after the fact. The reimbursement rate isn’t always 100% and changes year to year, but county officials see a majority of the funds return.
Parsons said his office divides the budget based on the caseload of the last year between the courts and then divides that by the number of attorneys and sends them a check each month. If there are more cases, attorneys make less per month and get paid more for fewer cases.
He said in addition to caseload, finding available attorneys isn’t an easy task. “Everybody wants more attorneys, including me. That was a big discussion at the state PD, there just aren’t enough attorneys anywhere in the state,” he said. “I’m not sure why.”
The increase helps ensure citizens have access to those attorneys when needed.
“No attorney has to do this. It’s kind of like when doctors go into a community that’s underserved,” said Commissioner Dave Burke. “At least in Union County, regardless of someone’s economic status, they’re going to get a fair trial, whether it’s shoplifting or murder, and that’s all we can ask for in a justice system.”