[blindlaw] reasonable caseloads

[Susan Kelly]

I am a public defender, and prior to becoming completely dependent on assistive technology, routinely carried open caseloads of over 60 cases when in the appellate section, 120 when in the trial section, and 90 - 100 once I transferred to the juvenile division.  (These numbers represent cases that were currently open at any given time - the yearly cumulative figure was much higher.)  As an additional complication, the vast majority of my clients at the time were non-English speakers.  (I was too busy working through my cases to realize that my co-workers did not tend to carry quite as high of caseloads, as they had the sense to complain.)

Now that I must rely on JAWS and other adaptive means to handle my cases, which itself is complicated by on-going issues with our computer systems in-office and at court, I cannot work nearly as quickly as in the past.  I find myself working non-stop while at the office, not taking lunch, and dragging recordings home to review for several hours each evening and on the weekends.  My current assignment is in the juvenile division, where I handle all of the appeals for the section, the week-day initials, and trial cases.  I will soon be training as the back-up for the juvenile drug court in addition to these tasks.  Does anyone have any idea what might be considered a reasonable caseload under these circumstances?