Public defenders get 12 minutes per misdemeanor — less than reading the police report

In 75% of U.S. county public defender offices, attorney caseloads exceed the recommended maximum. The 2023 RAND National Public Defense Workload Study found that a life-without-parole case requires 286 hours of attorney time, yet the legacy NAC standard from 1973 allocates just 14 hours per felony — a 20x gap. In practice, public defenders in high-volume misdemeanor courts handle 400+ cases per year, leaving roughly 12 minutes of attorney time per case. That is not enough time to read the police report, let alone interview the client, investigate the facts, or research applicable law. The people who suffer are indigent defendants — 80% of all criminal defendants — who functionally receive no legal defense at all. Their 'representation' is a brief hallway conversation before a guilty plea. This persists because public defender budgets are set by county or state legislatures that face no political consequence for underfunding defense: voters reward 'tough on crime' spending on prosecution and policing, not on defending people accused of crimes.