SAN FRANCISCO – In the ninth day of hearings over whether the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is “unavailable” to accept new appointments, misdemeanor manager Jacque Wilson testified that his unit’s caseload has exploded and that he and his team cannot take on more cases without jeopardizing representation.
Wilson, a deputy public defender and co-managing attorney of the misdemeanor unit along with Andrea Lindsay, told the court he supervises 17 attorneys, one social worker, one paralegal and four post-bar fellows. He said the combined misdemeanor caseload has grown from 1,612 cases in August 2024 to 2,493 cases by October 15, 2025, a 55 percent increase in just over a year, with each attorney now averaging about 147 cases.
“My responsibilities as a manager of our misdemeanor unit expand well beyond 40 hours per week,” Wilson wrote in a declaration submitted to the court, explaining that he and Lindsay are generally in the office from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and remain available by phone on weekends and holidays. He said they have an informal agreement that one of them is physically present in the office during business hours.
Wilson emphasized that most of the lawyers he supervises are new to criminal defense practice and need intensive supervision. He noted that three attorneys have less than two years of experience, four have a little more than one year, and three have less than eight months in practice, meaning more than 60 percent of the misdemeanor team has under two years’ experience. He told the court that level of inexperience requires extensive hands-on mentoring, case review and strategy support.
In his declaration, Wilson described a daily workload that includes reviewing case files for reassignment, conducting individual attorney meetings, providing case and trial strategy advice, handling cases for colleagues who are out on leave or in trial, supervising daily questions and trial strategy discussions, and running a weekly trial group, case conferences and unit meetings in addition to multiple office-wide meetings with other divisions.
Because of staffing shortages, Wilson said he frequently absorbs additional caseloads himself when attorneys go on maternity or paternity leave, medical leave or FMLA, or when they transfer to other units. He told the court he is currently handling both felony and misdemeanor matters, including a six-count misdemeanor jury trial, as well as having recently resolved a vehicular manslaughter case and a felony assault case on the same day, which also involved arguing a restitution hearing that reduced restitution from $4.7 million to $1.3 million.
Unlike the felony side of the office, Wilson explained, the misdemeanor unit has no dedicated “swing” unit to absorb overflow when attorneys are out, leaving him and Lindsay to shoulder those additional cases on top of management duties. He said that when one manager is tied up in a lengthy trial, the other has effectively been left to manage the entire unit while still maintaining an active caseload.
Wilson also described the load created by the office’s volunteer and training pipeline, which he oversees in addition to his management role. He stated that the Volunteer Attorney Program currently includes four post-bar fellows who collectively manage more than 220 cases and require intensive supervision, with two fellows having about seven months of experience and two with roughly two months.
Beyond those fellows, Wilson said he supervises six additional one-year fellows who assist units across the office, and that since 2018 he has managed all interns, fellows, post-bars and volunteer attorneys, including recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, training and evaluations. Each year, he said, he supervises about 75 interns in the summer and 30 to 40 interns each in the fall and spring, plus an additional 40 to 60 interns from city-funded programs such as the Dream Keeper Initiative, Black2SF and the Young Defender Program.
Wilson told the court that all of these interns and fellows require multi-day orientations, weekly trainings, evaluations and letters of recommendation, and that supervising them is in addition to his responsibilities to staff attorneys and clients. He also runs the CourtWatch program, which brings students and community members into the courtroom to observe the criminal legal system and learn about the public defender’s role, and regularly appears at community forums and law schools to speak on issues such as the felony murder rule, racial disparities and the impact of incarceration on families and communities.
The public defender manager said that even as caseloads have risen, the misdemeanor unit has seen a surge in jury trials returning to and surpassing pre-pandemic levels. He reported that the unit completed 24 jury trials in 2022, 40 in 2023 and 82 in 2024. As of October 28, 2025, attorneys had already completed 111 misdemeanor jury trials this year and are on pace to exceed 130 by year’s end, which would be a post-pandemic record.
According to Wilson, those trial results have been strong despite the workload. Of the 111 misdemeanor jury trials completed through late October, he said the office secured not guilty verdicts or hung juries in 57 cases (51.4 percent) and mixed verdicts in 28 more (25.2 percent), with guilty verdicts on all counts in only 26 cases (23.4 percent). He told the court these outcomes reflect the dedication, skill and persistence of attorneys working under unprecedented pressure.
Wilson also noted that the proportion of “no time waiver” jury trial settings has actually declined even as total caseloads rose, which he attributed to the strain on attorneys and longer case durations. On August 14, 2024, 237 of the unit’s 1,612 cases were set for no time waiver jury trial, about 14.7 percent. By October 15, 2025, with 2,493 cases, only 217—8.7 percent—were set as no time waiver. He said the heavier workloads have made attorneys less able to set no time waiver trials, further compounding backlogs.
Throughout his testimony, Wilson told the court he has repeatedly raised concerns about caseloads, late discovery, diversion practices and attorney well-being with office leadership, the District Attorney’s Office and San Francisco Superior Court, including at justice partner meetings. He said he has asked for more staffing and urged greater use of diversion and alternative resolutions, but budget constraints have prevented the hiring of new attorneys and diversion usage has declined from earlier years.
Wilson stressed that the situation has personal and professional limits. He referenced his own health issues and family responsibilities and told the arraignment judge there is no realistic way for him to absorb additional felony assignments on top of his current work without sacrificing his existing obligations. He framed the problem as one of structural overload, not a lack of willingness to work.
“Given the scope of these responsibilities, I respectfully submit that managing the misdemeanor unit is not a one-person job,” Wilson wrote, adding that both he and Lindsay “work extensive hours to ensure that our attorneys, fellows, interns, and clients receive the support and advocacy they deserve.”
The arraignment judge, Judge Dorfman, has been holding a series of evidentiary hearings to determine whether the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is legally “unavailable” to take new felony appointments due to excessive caseloads. Wilson’s testimony and declaration are expected to factor heavily into the court’s assessment of whether misdemeanor management responsibilities and rising trial demands leave any capacity for managers like him to be reassigned to additional felony work.
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