FRESNO, Calif. — In a unanimous 79-0 vote, the California Assembly advanced AB 2605, legislation that would require all counties to document public defender caseloads and report that data to the state on a routine basis. Authored by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, the measure marks the first statewide effort in California history to track public defense caseloads at a time advocates describe as a public defense caseload crisis.
The state has historically lacked comprehensive data on cases handled by public defender offices, despite California being considered a public defense pioneer in the United States. According to a press release, this absence of statewide data has left legislators and policymakers unable to fully quantify the scope of the problem.
Research by the Wren Collective has revealed that a “flat-fee” system has been operationalized in several counties, privatizing public defense through lump-sum contracts that cover an unlimited number of cases. The release states that this system has resulted in average caseloads ranging from 400 to 500 cases per attorney.
According to the press release, AB 690, the Fair Representation Act, is being enacted alongside AB 2605 and would ban those flat-fee contracts entirely. Several states, including Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, South Dakota and Washington, have already outlawed flat-fee contracts, and California would join them through AB 690.
According to the text of AB 690, the legislation would require all indigent defense contracts to include separate funding allocations for investigators, social workers and immigration counsel. It also requires that caseload limits be informed by the National Public Defense Workload Study, published by the RAND Corporation in 2023.
Combined, the two bills would push for significant systemic public defense reform in California.
The State Bar of California identified the need for “reliable statistical caseload data” more than 20 years ago, according to the press release. Drawing from a comprehensive legislative report produced last year under AB 625, AB 2605 would implement new recommendations.
According to the AB 2605 Assembly Committee Analysis, although the bill passed unanimously through the Assembly, it faces opposition as it heads to the Senate. The opposition comes from the Rural County Representatives of California, the California State Association of Counties and the Urban Counties of California.
These organizations argue that AB 2605 does not provide the funding necessary to support compliance while imposing new administrative burdens on counties.
“Data is critical in evaluating the efficacy of any program or system,” the organizations stated, but the new requirements “would divert limited local resources away from essential county services, including the provision of constitutionally mandated legal representation.”
The committee analysis states that the organizations have proposed amendments requiring a full state appropriation before they would withdraw their opposition.
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