Private attorneys in St. Louis County soon may find themselves assigned to represent indigent clients in certain types of low-level felony cases. On Dec. 5, following a prolonged effort by public defenders from the St. Louis County Trial Office to ...

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Jackson County’s presiding judge has denied caseload relief for two public defenders and to their office as a whole in a June 27 ruling. Judge David M. Byrn ruled that neither David Wiegert nor Walter Stokely have caseload problems and ...

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Jackson County’s district defender is asking for a new judge to hear her concerns about attorney caseloads following Presiding Judge John Torrence’s recent comments in a Kansas City Star interview in which he questioned the work ethic of young lawyers in her office.

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Petsch v. Jackson County Prosecuting Attorneys Office (MLW No. 71807/Case No. WD81536 – 14 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Hardwick, J.)

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Missouri’s public defenders have argued for years that they have too many cases for too few attorneys but have never been able to prove it. A newly released study of the defender system, they say, could be the long-sought key to reducing their caseload.

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A new study says Missouri’s public defenders are spending far less time on cases than they ought to be.

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A recent telephone scam led by scammers identifying themselves as public defenders hit very close to home for Missouri’s top public defender.

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The National Center for State Courts studied a sample of 10 judicial circuits in Missouri and discovered “an important relationship" between the number of prosecutors and public defenders in a given county.

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Judge J. Miles Sweeney’s report arrived with a proposed solution that the Supreme Court can’t enforce and that the system’s leader says would only go part way toward dialing back public defender caseloads to a manageable level.

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The special master tasked with examining the Missouri State Public Defender System’s right to refuse cases in overloaded offices has sent his final report to the Missouri Supreme Court.

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States like Missouri that are struggling to maintain or improve indigent defense may get help from an unlikely source: the federal government. Within the next few months, the White House or U.S. Department of Justice may float a proposal to ...

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