The guarantees of the 6th Amendment are not met by simply providing the defendant a warm body with a bar card. An accused is in need of and entitled to a zealous, capable advocate who can provide effective assistance consistent with prevailing professional norms. When public defense attorneys are burdened with excessive caseloads they are unable to fulfill their ethical and constitutional responsibilities to their clients and the community.

and Attorney Workload Standards

The Sixth Amendment's promise that every person accused of a crime is entitled to counsel is a hollow one when the attorney appointed lacks the time and resources to provide meaningful representation. In order to determine whether defenders in Rhode Island are facing a caseload crisis, NACDL, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (ABA SCLAID), and the accounting firm of BlumShapiro undertook an assessment of the Rhode Island Public Defender system ("RIPD"). [Released November 2017]

On April 6 and 7, 2017, NACDL, the Foundation for Criminal Justice, the Monroe Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Center for Court Innovation, and the State of New York Unified Court System convened a conference designed to explore the impediments to and reforms needed to ensure effective justice in all stages of the criminal process, with a particular focus on the judicial role in high-volume misdemeanor courts. [Released December 2017]

For more than a year, NACDL has examined Maine’s public defense system, providing technical assistance to MCILS under a grant from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. ... As the nation’s preeminent criminal defense bar, NACDL is keenly interested in ensuring public defense providers have caseloads that are reasonable and allow them to fulfill their legal, ethical, and constitutional obligations.

Member Richard Kammen's written statement to the House Appropriations Committee regarding adequate funding and training for defender services to ensure adequate representation for those who cannot afford it.

President John Wesley Hall's statement to the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security regarding public defense representation in criminal cases in Michigan and elsewhere.

President John Wesley Hall's statement to the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security regarding issues in public defense representation, particularly for misdemeanor charges.

Amicus curiae brief of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Public Interest Law Section of the Florida Bar, University of Miami School of Law Center for Ethics and Public Service, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Brennan Center for Justice, and the Constitution Project in support of petitioner.

Argument: The petitioner and assistant public defenders for the 11th Judicial Circuit have shown that their excessive caseloads imminently threaten not only to create conflicts of interest but also to deprive current and former indigent clients of constitutionally-effective assistance of counsel and are therefore entitled to limit further representations without waiting for those threats to materialize; extensive evidence presented in the trial court establishes both ongoing violations of the Sixth Amendment rights of petitioner’s clients and an unacceptable risk of future violations; the intermediate court of appeal improperly limited the scope of the Sixth Amendment as it applies to systemic deficiencies.

Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner (On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois).

Argument: The Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling subverts indigent defendants’ fundamental rights to conflict-free counsel, while misunderstanding the practical realities facing public defenders’ offices. This Court has consistently declared that fundamental constitutional rights may not be abridged based on an inability to pay. The Illinois Supreme Court’s carve-out of public defenders from ethical rules applicable to private law firms deprives indigent defendants of their fundamental rights to conflict-free counsel. The practicalities of working in public defenders’ offices demand equally exacting standards as those governing private law firms. The resources of public defenders’ offices nationwide are stretched thin by staggering caseloads. The practical realities of working in public defenders’ offices promote cooperation and collaboration, not an “adversary tendency.”

NACDL is committed to ensuring quality representation for all accused individuals and has set out to help reform inadequate state and local indigent defense systems through technical assistance, public education, advocacy, and litigation.  Available below are materials from the Department of Justice and other organizations discussing Right to Counsel standards and guidelines.