The Oregon Project: An Analysis of the Oregon Public Defense System and Attorney Workloads Standards
ABA SCLAID and Moss Adams collaboratively conducted the Oregon Project, An Analysis of Public Defense Attorney Workloads. Published in January 2022, the Oregon Project includes an analysis of historical public defense caseloads and staffing, as well as a Delphi process, which resulted in attorney workload standards. Combining these analyses, the project determined that, at current caseloads, Oregon has a very substantial deficiency of contract public defense attorneys.
Read the full Report of the Oregon Project
Specifically, Oregon needs an additional 1296 FTE contract attorneys –more than three times its current level - to meet the standard of reasonably effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. In other words, with a consistent annual workload, Oregon has only 31% of the public defense attorneys it needs to handle its adult and juvenile caseloads.
More on the Oregon Project: