Funding to meet public defender standards uncertain for 2027

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 7, 2026

EVERETT — Amid changing caseload standards for public defenders statewide, Snohomish County is prepared to cover the cost of the new standards in 2026.

As for 2027 — that remains up in the air.

In June, justices filed an order that reduced the number of cases public defenders handle in a year to around a third of the previous caseload limits. As of Jan. 1, full-time attorneys can handle 47 felony case credits and 120 misdemeanor case credits a year, based on their area of practice. Previously, the standards per year were 150 felonies and 400 to 300 misdemeanors, depending on whether the jurisdiction uses case-weighting.

In a June article, The Washington State Standard reported the Washington State Association of Counties said the new standards were “unattainable with the level of funding now available and due to a shortage of lawyers.”

The OPD has been facing a budget shortfall for the 2025-2026 biennial budget stemming from the cost of expert services and contracting with lawyers to handle legal conflicts not managed by the Snohomish County Public Defender Association, the office’s main contractor, rather than the new case load standards. But in 2027, costs will rise due to the need to hire more lawyers to meet the targeted reduction.

“In other jurisdictions, there have been challenges to recruiting public defenders,” said Jason Schwarz, director of the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense, in an email. “The Snohomish County Public Defenders Association continues to be successful in recruiting young and talented lawyers from across the country.”

The new standards come after the RAND corporation, the American Bar Association, the National Center for State Courts and lawyer Stephen Hanlon collaborated to release a 2023 study, which stated “excessive caseloads violate ethics rules and inevitably cause harm.”

That same year, the court requested the Washington State Bar Association Council on Public Defense review the study and provide its recommendations to the court. In March 2024, the WSBA recommended a maximum of 47 felony or 120 misdemeanor case credits per year, with the case’s severity impacting its credits.

The order stated that although the court has not completed its full review, the crisis in indigent criminal defense services throughout the state requires immediate action.

“The reality is that many aspects of indigent criminal defense services vary by structure and location,” the order said. “So the Court is adopting an approach which accommodates that diversity while fostering real and meaningful reductions in caseloads as soon as possible, where necessary.”

While the order stated that execution of these standards must be completed as “soon as reasonably possible,” implementation can be phased in with annual reductions of “at least 10% of the difference between the current standard and the new standard,” with full compliance occurring within 10 years.

Snohomish County will be able to meet the court’s targeted reduction for 2026 without additional cost for taxpayers due to the state’s financial contribution, said Jason Schwarz, director of the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense, in an email.

“The caseload standards are a necessary change to preserve the rights of the accused and assure a livable lifestyle for those who serve to represent them,” Schwarz said in an email. “But they are going to be costly.”

Sponsored by 19 state representatives, including Strom Peterson and Sam Low, House Bill 1592 intended to split the cost of public defense between local jurisdictions and the state. While the bill didn’t advance in the 2025 regular session, legislators set aside additional money for cities’ and counties’ public defense services in the operating budget, Schwarz said.

“The presence of Rep Peterson and Low’s bill raised awareness of the costs born by local government and was instrumental in getting an increase in passthrough funding to the County,” Schwarz said.

In May 2025, when Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the operating budget into law, it was the first substantial increase in the state’s Office of Public Defense’s Public Defense Improvement grant program since 2008, in addition to the largest increase since the program’s inception, according to a Washington State Office of Public Defense release.

In 2005, the grant program was established to provide funds to improve public defense services in cities and counties.

“Before that, the state contributed zero money to local, criminal public defense,” said Sophia Byrd McSherry, the deputy director for government relations at Washington State Office of Public Defense.

Cities can apply for funds under a competitive program, and counties that apply receive a proportional share of available state funding, based on a formula and criteria, including population and number of criminal cases filed in the county’s superior court annually as a percentage of the totals from all eligible counties.

In 2024, Snohomish County filed 1,534 criminal cases in Superior Court.

The program previously received $6.8 million annually in funding, the release said. Now, the program has $13.6 million in annual disbursements, increasing the previous allocation from $5,821,675 for counties and $1,043,275 for cities to $11,910,500 and $1,689,500, respectively. 

“There was a lot of pressure from the counties and the cities, but primarily the counties, and the Office of Public Defense supported them in getting an increase in state funding,” Byrd McSherry said.

The state’s biennial budget will go through fiscal year 2027.

“We won’t do another big budget request until the next biennial budget,” Byrd McSherry said.

Snohomish County is allocated $822,499 from the legislation. While the county’s OPD plans to continue to comply with the court’s order in 2027, funding is the biggest challenge, Schwarz said.

“Without new legislation earmarking additional state contributions or some change in local tax structure for law and justice, I’m less confident about our ability to cover the costs in 2027,” Schwarz said

While the OPD has worked to slim down its programs, unnecessary contracts and expenses, Schwarz said he hopes to see another increase in public defense funding in the 2026 legislative session. Even a marginal increase can have a big impact on the OPD’s ability to provide a legal defense, he said.

“If individuals get accused with crimes and cannot get a lawyer or have a lawyer who is too overworked to commit to defending the accused, then we really aren’t providing a constitutionally mandated service,” Schwarz said. “The accused will suffer, and the public’s faith that justice can be achieved in court will be undermined.”

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com. X: @JennaMillikan