Washington State defined its limits for public defenders as: Felonies: 150 cases per year Misdemeanors: 300 cases per year Juvenile cases: 250 cases per year

Washington State defined its limits for public defenders as: Felonies: 150 cases per year Misdemeanors: 300 cases per year Juvenile cases: 250 cases per year So a total of 700 cases per public defender, per year. Assuming no vacations or sick leave, total working hours is about 2000 per year, so they could average not even 3 hours per case, and of course felonies are likely to eat up the lions share of whatever hours they could spend on them. You're not going to get effective representation from any public defender, even with the most competent lawyers in the world. They simply don't have enough possible hours to spend on any given case to provide competent defense.