The New Orleans Public Defenders Office announced that, due to an overload of cases and lack of funding, they will begin to refuse cases beginning in mid-January.

According to a press release provided by the office, Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton said he cannot ethically give cases to overworked and undertrained attorneys.

“Our workload has now reached unmanageable levels resulting in a constitutional crisis,” Bunton said in the press release.

While the defenders’ office still remains $600,000 short of budget to prevent service restrictions, The New Orleans City Council allotted an additional $250,000 for the 2016 budget to prevent the service from shutting down for 10 days.