Orleans Public Defenders Have Begun Rejecting Cases

Nicholas Morea

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.