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Missouri State Auditor Releases Report On Public Defender System

Auditor Tom Schweich says Public Defenders have relied on national standards that are out-of-date to determine how many cases they should have.
State of Missouri
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KRCU

A state audit of the Missouri Public Defender system has found problems with how the attorneys for the poor determine the number of cases they should have.

Auditor Tom Schweich says Public Defenders have relied on national standards that are out-of-date to determine how many cases they should have.

“They recognize what we said was accurate and they’ve agreed to implement the recommendation and one of them is that you’ve got to use actuals in determining whether overworked or not,” Schweich said. “You can’t use a 1973 methodology that uses an apples to oranges comparison.”

The system’s director, Cat Kelly, says they will update their standards, but keep using the protocol they have in the meantime.

She says that’s because a national expert found the standards weren’t strict enough.

“His objections are that it has us taking too many cases, rather than too few, and given that assessment that we are not turning away more cases than we should be under this protocol we’re very comfortable with proceeding with the protocol we have while building a better lifeboat,” Kelly said.

Public defenders will likely turn away some clients this fall under that protocol.

The state auditor’s report overall rating of the public defender system was “fair.”

Schweich said while they found numerous issues, the public defenders have agreed to address them.