Question

Should public defenders be allowed to stop accepting cases when caseloads become too significant? Is this an effective way of pursuing better funding for indigent defense? Include counterarguments.

Answer 1

• Public defenders are, as a general matter, the hardest working sect of the legal bar. But almost every nation’s public defender systems have long been plagued by underfunding and excessive caseloads.
• They definitely face an ethical dilemma,either take on too many cases and risk losing their law license to an ethics complaint, or refuse to take on an excessive workload and risk being held in contempt of court and jailed.
• Public defenders are the only ones who stand up for the vast majority of people charged with crimes in America, and they try to help the clients achieve justice in an often unfeeling legal system that disproportionately ensnares poor people and minorities. But the constitutional guarantee of effective representation for all has fallen short.
• I think,yes,they deserve higher pay and more funding but they are the ones who don't represent criminals.They represent the poor common people who are less priviledged and cannot afford expensive lawyers.More than being a lawyer,public defenders are social workers,and if they stop accepting cases because of work overload,where will poor people go.
• Having said that,government needs to take steps to help public defenders and make them a stronger community by providing better funding.The fight needs to be with the authority not the people.They should continue both simultaneously.
• They represent members of the communities who have a right to real and meaningful legal representation, even if they are poor. Their clients, like the millions of other people in the world who are currently represented by public defenders, deserve better and so,do public defenders themselves.