4 days ago
Oregon House approves Public Defense Commission budget: Here's what's in it
The budget for the Oregon Public Defense Commission is set to include $2.2 million for attorneys to take increased caseloads and $3.4 million for law schools to train students to take on public defense for misdemeanor cases.
The Oregon Senate on June 23 passed House Bill 5031, OPDC's 2025-27 budget after it was passed by the House June 18.
The budget includes funds for several measures that aim to reduce the unrepresented crisis in Oregon. It now heads to Gov. Tina Kotek for her signature.
OPDC Director Ken Sanchagrin on June 2 delivered a plan to Kotek on how the commission will work to resolve the state's unrepresented crisis.
Kotek ordered the commission to deliver the plan and a timeline for when the crisis would be resolved in the six counties most impacted when she fired former OPDC Director Jessica Kampfe in April.
The budget will include investments to compensate attorneys who take on increased caseloads, support law schools and ensure the public is informed about progress in resolving the crisis.
As of June 25, there were about 3,762 unrepresented defendants across the state, according to the Oregon Judicial Department's dashboard. In Marion County, there were about 426 unrepresented defendants in criminal cases. Polk County had none.
Lawmakers have been struggling to fix the system for years.
A 2018 report found the state's system was causing it to fail its constitutional obligation of providing counsel to indigent defendants.
The report found the compensation plan for contracted lawyers pitted their financial self-interest against the rights of their clients.
In 2023, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 337, which approved more than $90 million to overhaul the system.
The bill renamed the public defense commission the Oregon Public Defense Commission and moved it from the judicial to the executive branch. It also directed OPDC to develop a six-year plan to address the crisis.
The commission's plan, released in October 2024, determined Oregon needs to almost double its number of public defenders from 506 to 980 by 2031 to meet the needs of the state.
The budget includes $707.7 million in funds, 180 positions and about a 9.6% increase in service level, according to the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety's recommendation. The agency previously had a budget of about $616.7 million.
About $329.6 million will go toward providing trial-level public defense to financially eligible adults in criminal cases and $45.4 million will go toward the juvenile trial division. Other funds will go toward case-related costs, compliance and auditing, appellate court defense and administrative services.
The budget will include $2.2 million for an Enhanced Provider Capacity Pilot Program, one of the changes identified in Sanchagrin's plan.
The program will commit resources to compensating increased attorney caseloads in the six counties where the crisis is most extreme — Multnomah, Washington, Marion, Jackson, Douglas and Coos counties.
Attorneys under contract with OPDC are restricted by maximum attorney caseload limits. These set a certain number of types of cases attorneys can take per month, with the goal that attorneys on average are at 100% capacity.
The bill will also commit $3.4 million to Oregon law schools to provide training and supervision of law students to take on misdemeanor cases.
An additional $492,865 would fund a position in the trial division for expedited resolution of case dockets in Multnomah, Washington and Marion counties.
OPDC will be required to submit reports in January and September 2026 on agency restructuring and implementation of Sanchagrin's plan. It will also be required to submit a report in 2027 on the investment in law schools.
Isabel Funk covers breaking news and public safety for the Statesman Journal. Funk can be reached at ifunk@ or on X at @isabeldfunk
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon Legislature approves Public Defense Commission budget
