O'Connor audit details how caseloads overwhelm Allegheny County public defenders

In an audit released Thursday, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor raised concerns that public defenders’ heavy caseloads may make it difficult to provide effective representation.

His audit recommended the county improve the way it analyzes and manages attorneys’ caseloads in the Allegheny County Office of the Public Defender.

According to O’Connor, 36 of the 42 trial attorneys in the public defender’s office maintained caseloads above the national average. They would need to work an additional 57,868 hours per year to meet the caseload standards, O’Connor said. In one instance, an attorney’s workload indicated that individual would need to work more than three times their available hours to meet the caseload standard.

“Despite the best efforts by these dedicated attorneys, handling caseloads that require double or triple daily working hours is unsustainable,” O’Connor said, suggesting the county implement new caseload management processes and hire more investigators, social workers and legal support staff.

The audit raised concerns that the existing system results in disproportionate caseloads for attorneys. When some attorneys carry excessive loads, the audit said, “the quality of representation could suffer, impacting case outcomes.”

“I could not agree more that the Office of the Public Defender needs to improve attorney caseload management and analysis,” Chief Public Defender Lena Bryan-Henderson wrote in response to the audit’s findings.

She rejected a suggestion from the audit that requiring more stringent documentation to show people cannot afford other legal representation would reduce the office’s workload.

“Implementing more stringent documentation requirements could create unnecessary barriers for individuals already facing significant hardships, without any proven benefits to case outcomes or administrative efficiency,” she wrote.

Rob Perkins, executive director of Allegheny Lawyers Initiative for Justice, in a statement said O’Connor’s audit — which marks the first such analysis of the system — confirmed concerns that caseloads were two to three times the national average. He highlighted it also showed potential conflicts of interest, like when judges are permitted to select the lawyers who appear in their courtrooms.

But Perkins said there are other issues beyond the scope of the controller’s probe.

Perkins also raised alarms that the public defender’s office fails to send lawyers to many bail hearings. He said court-appointed attorney are “inadequately trained, inadequately supervised, and inadequately compensated.”

While the controller considered staffing issues with lawyers, Perkins said the office needs more social workers.

Currently, the public defender’s office employs only one social worker, though it represents thousands of people each year who struggle with mental health and substance use disorders, Perkins wrote.

He urged county officials to provide enough funding to hire more staff to begin addressing such concerns.