Audit: Minnesota public defenders shoulder high caseloads even by 30-year-old standards

MINNESOTA (Minnesota Reformer) Minnesota public defenders are struggling under heavy caseloads to fulfill their constitutional obligation to represent every person accused of a crime who can’t afford a lawyer, according to a report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor released on Tuesday. The state’s roughly 600 public defenders represented people in more than 135,000 cases in 2025, ranging from disorderly conduct to murder. That’s 225 cases per lawyer, though caseloads vary based on the seriousness and complexity of cases. For the entire five-year period analyzed in the evaluation, average caseloads have exceeded state standards meant to ensure attorneys can meet their ethical duty to provide “prompt, competent, and diligent representation.” What’s more, the Office of the Legislative Auditor found the governing body overseeing public defense still hasn’t updated the state’s caseload standards despite being advised by a similar audit in 2010 that the standards were outdated. Th