March 2023 Bar Bulletin
It has been 60 years since the United States Supreme Court granted Clarence Earl Gideon’s handwritten claim for appointed counsel in a state felony case. With a lawyer at his new trial, Mr. Gideon was acquitted.
This year, nearly 50 years since the National Advisory Commission developed the familiar caseload standard of 150 felonies or 400 misdemeanors per lawyer per year, a coalition of national leaders is publishing new workload standards that are dramatically lower. The Washington State Bar Council on Public Defense plans to recommend that the existing court rule standards be amended...