Defender’s Office Meets Cuts but Seeks Relief

The Orange County public defender’s office has saved nearly $5 million since the county declared bankruptcy in December, but the changes have brought damaging effects that are making caseloads “nearly unmanageable,” officials said Friday.

“We’re pretty much at the end of our rope,” Chief Deputy Public Defender Carl C. Holmes said. “We’ve done all we can do. . . . We’ve got to have some relief. We’ve got to be able to put some replacements in here or we’re not going to make it.”

Much of the savings has come from splitting the office into three divisions to represent thousands of indigent clients whose cases had previously been assigned to private attorneys at a higher cost.

In the new budget year beginning in July, the public defender expects to save as much as $7.4 million and handle an additional 6,000 cases with the three offices, a change ordered by the Board of Supervisors in late December.

“This project is, in fact, strong evidence of the ability of public employees to rally to a challenge and to effectively meet it while saving millions of dollars in the process,” Holmes said.

But the success of the project, he said, has taken a toll: Backlogs are growing in cases involving the death penalty and repeat felons facing 25 years to life in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law. The office also is losing attorneys--about six so far--and efforts to attract experienced replacements to handle complicated cases is “almost impossible,” Holmes said.

“New applicants are concerned that there is no secure future with Orange County as their employer,” he said.

Holmes said he has been meeting with the Board of Supervisors and county officials and hopes solutions, including more flexibility in hiring lawyers on a limited basis and offering them benefits, may be coming in the coming weeks.

“In the long run, financial stabilization in Orange County may be the only solution,” he said.

Superior Court Presiding Judge James L. Smith and other county officials involved in the talks could not be reached for comment Friday.

The Orange County Bar Assn. has also been working with the office to find solutions.

Franz E. Miller, chairman of the association’s Indigent Criminal Defense Task Force, said the panel is working on a plan that would include more case assignments to private attorneys, yet maintain savings.

“We’re trying to come up with a solution that allows the private bar to participate at an expense the county can bear,” he said.

Miller said he can’t say if the plan would bring savings like those the office has already achieved, although he questions the public defender’s ability to maintain such savings under difficult circumstances.

Segmenting the public defender’s office into three independent divisions marked a drastic change in the way the county provides defense services to the poor, who have a constitutional right to free and adequate counsel when charged with a crime.

Before the change, the Orange County public defender’s office handled the majority of indigent defense cases. In the 1993-94 budget year, the office handled about 65,000 cases with a budget of $20 million. At the same time, private attorneys handled about 6,100 cases at a cost of about $12.2 million.

The cases previously assigned to private attorneys were mostly felonies, including many more complex cases such as those involving the death penalty or multiple defendants. Private attorneys and investigators were appointed when a “conflict” arose for the public defender’s office, such as when more than one defendant was charged in a case.

Under the new organization, conflict cases are sent to the alternate defender’s office. If the alternate defender has a conflict, the case is forwarded to the third division.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Not Enough Lawyers The Orange County public defenders office is handling its heaviest caseload ever with virtually no increase in full-time personnel. *

Total cases 1992-1993: 61,379 1995-1996*: 75,000 *

Cases per full- time lawyer 1992-1993: 507 1995-1996*: 610 Sources: Orange County public defender