The Problem with Ignoring the National Public Defense Workload Study

By Kawan Clinton, Deputy Attorney in Charge of the Manhattan trial office of The Legal
Aid Society. Co-chair of the NAPD Workloads Committee.

This blog is in response to Professor John P. Gross: https://publicdefenders.us/blogs/theproblems-
with-the-national-public-defense-workload-study/.

The problem with the National Public Defense Workload Study (NPDWS) is simple. It is long
overdue and lands in a political landscape that makes one of our own doubt its validity. He is
more concerned about speculating whether the current Supreme Court will uphold the right to
counsel sometime in the future than fighting now to change the poorly kept secret that public
defenders have been forced to carry grossly excessive caseloads for decades.