The Montgomery County Courthouse. (Credit: MediaNews Group)
Montgomery County on Thursday took steps to begin a revamp of the public defender’s office, authorizing the hiring of 18 new staff members.
“This is the ultimate game changer,” Chief Public Defender Christine Lora said in an interview with MediaNews Group ahead of Thursday’s vote by county commissioners to approve the hiring plan.
The county Public Defender’s Office currently has a staff of around 74 employees, according to Lora, with roughly 50 lawyers. The public defender’s office represents without charge indigent persons under arrest or charged with an indictable offense. If an indigent person qualifies for representation, the lawyers defend the person at every stage of the proceedings
“We’re really just thinking about this as a way to continue to show our support and ensuring that every resident regardless of how much money they have has access to the highest standard of legal representation,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Jamila Winder in an interview with MediaNews Group ahead of Thursday’s vote.
The proposed new hires include 15 lawyers, an assistant chief of mental health and two administrative support professionals, Lora said.
Six of the lawyers would work in the adult trial unit dealing with cases in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas; six would be designated to the pretrial unit; one attorney would be assigned to the juvenile dependency, also known as the child advocacy unit; and another would cover juvenile delinquency cases, with the final attorney assigned to the violations unit.
Compensation for the new Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office personnel varies, according to salary documents. Salaries range from $61,249 and $91,566.45 for attorneys; $42,281 to $64,833.55 for office support personnel; and $93,787 to $143,807.55 for the assistant chief of mental health.
“I want to make sure the community understands we’ve got an awesome team of employees working in the public defender’s office and so that can’t be missed in all of this,” Winder said. “This is an effort really to get us up to a standard in terms of personnel that is best in class.
“And [it’s] not just people where we’re making investments. Those people have to have tools, systems that they can avail themselves to execute the duties of their job,” Winder said.
Will take some time
While the Montgomery County Salary Board voted to authorize new hires for the public defender’s office, it’s unclear exactly when the new personnel will be brought on board.
“We want to ensure that the community knows to staff up 18 experienced professionals — it’s going to take us a little bit of time,” Winder said.
Lora agreed. Looking for “seasoned attorneys,” she anticipated the need to take a “graduated approach to the staffing.” Lora also set an overall goal of fully staffing the positions by next summer, but stressed “it’s going to be an incremental push.”
Lora said she aims to onboard nine staffers this fall, with three new attorneys expected next month. She added aggressive recruiting efforts are underway to recruit the assistant chief of mental health. “… We’re going to be doing everything within our power to get this person onboarded prior to the new year,” Lora said.
Unburden the caseloads
The county public defender’s office has long been burdened by colossal caseloads, as Lora and Winder observed. Winder noted that around 24 lawyers dealing with adult criminal cases in Montgomery County handle “an average of 5,000 cases per year.”
“Currently, the average attorney caseload in Montgomery County in some cases is more than two times what the industry has recommended,” Winder said, adding that “one of our number one concerns is caseload and workload for our public defenders.”
Lora agreed, citing findings from the “National Public Defense Workload Study.” The 2023 document urged the overturning of previously conventional caseload working standards for public defenders and instead called for the need to alleviate “excessive caseloads” and urged different types of cases be weighed differently.
“We want to make sure we’re providing constitutionally effective representation for our clients, and we’re going to be able to say that we are here in Montgomery County and that feels wonderful,” Lora said.
Paused a facility move
The staffing expansion prompted county commissioners to halt plans to renovate a slated location for the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office. Elected officials had authorized a $9.57 million contract in April to renovate a four-story building at 18 W. Airy St. in Norristown.
The space was originally purchased by the county in 2021, and the contract package had procured services to implement interior and exterior improvements to the building. Montgomery County Department of Assets and Infrastructure Director Jesse King had told MediaNews Group back in April that work might wrap up in the “late second quarter” of 2025.
But county officials reconsidered their options amid discussions surrounding proposed staffing increases over the past four months and paused the project in mid-July. The county’s public defender’s office currently operates out of the Montgomery County Courthouse, located at 2 E. Airy St., in Norristown.
“It now exceeds the design expectations of that property,” Winder said. “Rather than us go down a path and outfit an office for an old plan, we opted to just pause it, and revisit options for utilization of that building.”
Winder said the contract has since been canceled. However, there was a $41,461 invoice “for the preparation of structural steel drawings” received, according to a county spokesperson. The remaining $9.52 million will return to the county’s capital budget.
Prospective locations have not yet been identified, but Winder stressed that maintaining a presence in the county seat is a top priority, citing the need for proximity to the Montgomery County Courthouse.
“So not necessarily saying 18 W. Airy [St.] will not be the space,” Winder said. “We just canceled the contract because we need to take a step back, and think about our entire county campus plan, and so that’s not necessarily off the table, but we have our assets and infrastructure team really assessing is that location the best option?”
“… It would be irresponsible for us to move ahead with the plans as we voted on previously knowing that we want the public defender’s office to all be together working in a collaborative working environment,” she continued.
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