No end in sight for Benton County defense attorney shortage. 6 suspects already freed

A Benton County public defense attorney shortage that led to six suspects having their bail eliminated last week could get much worse in the near future.

Benton County officials suggested the shortage is tied to a Washington State Bar Association decision that will drastically cut the number of cases public defenders are allowed to handle in a year.

Benton and Franklin county leaders have warned that the new rules will require a massive expansion of their public defense budgets.

Officials plan to discuss those concerns at a Wednesday workshop with local lawmakers. The meeting is set for 11 a.m. at the HAPO Center in Pasco with state Sen. Nikki Torres and state Reps. Stephanie Barnard, Mark Klicker and Skyler Rude.

“We have to figure out a path forward and how we are going to pay for it,” Franklin County Administrator Mike Gonzalez said in a news release. “Benton County has already begun releasing defendants because there aren’t enough attorneys available.”

Franklin County is in a better position at the moment, but it was only a year ago that it struggled to find public defense lawyers. This also led to people getting their bail cut and charges being dropped.

The crisis revolves around a recently adopted set of rules from the Washington State Bar Association. For years, state law and bar association rules limited public defense attorneys to 150 felony cases and 400 misdemeanor cases in a year.

But a committee from the association found that was too many cases and it was burning out public defenders and discouraging new ones from entering the field.

So the association adopted an aggressive three-year timeline to slice the number of annual cases to a maximum of 47 in 2027.

In addition, it adds a mandatory system that would also take into consideration the type of case. That could put the maximum number of felony cases handled each year at less than 47.

Benton and Franklin county officials have said to meet those new requirements, they would need to hire more than 150 attorneys between the two counties.

Benton County officials said there simply aren’t enough attorneys to fill that need.

Right to an attorney

State and federal constitutions guarantee anyone charged with a crime the right to have an attorney if they can’t afford one.

They also limit how long someone can stay in jail before they go to trial. The deadline is 60 days if they are in jail and 90 days if they are out of it.

Last Thursday, Judge Diana Ruff ruled that bail needed to be eliminated for several inmates because it was a violation of their rights to keep them in jail without any legal representation.

A number of defendants had been in jail for up to a month without an attorney. And most of them didn’t get an attorney appointed on Thursday, either.

Ruff’s decision followed a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Oregon’s floundering public defense system.

Oregon’s state-funded system has left many defendants waiting in jail, some for up to a year, without an attorney and to navigate an unfamiliar and confusing system.

The appeals court upheld a U.S. District Court judge ruling that would require defendants to be appointed an attorney within seven days of their initial appearance, otherwise they should be released from jail before their trial.

While the 9th Circuit includes much of the western United States, some prosecutors have taken the position that the decision only applies in Oregon.

Ruff and Public Defense Manager Charlie Dow have taken the stance that the case could provide a precedent for Washington which has seen similar attorney shortages.

So, six suspects had their bail cut Thursday. Five were released and another was then charged in Franklin County and jailed there.

What next

It remains unknown if Benton County will face a similar week when the criminal docket starts. Normally, defendants are placed on the first week of the month to have an attorney appointed. But it’s possible that more are scheduled for later this week.

“I anticipate that we will be working through this for at least the month of June and probably longer,” Prosecutor Eric Eisinger told the Herald.

Eisinger has been communicating with law enforcement departments in the county and, at this point, he said his department isn’t making any changes about what kinds of charges they file.

“We need to make sure that there is a defense attorney for every case that gets filed,” he said. “We don’t control that but it effects our ability to prosecute cases.”

Benton County Public Defense Manager Charles Dow has not discussed his struggles to find more attorneys or how many he is trying to hire.