Montgomery County has announced a historic investment in its public defender’s office after approving a significant expansion of its team. The county will immediately seek to hire 15 new public defenders and several non-legal positions, including support staff and a social worker.
“We are proactively investing in our public defender’s office to meet the current and future needs of the district,” said Jamila H. Winder, Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. “By strengthening our public defender’s office, we strengthen our entire community. We are able to provide the quality of legal defense our citizens deserve, prevent unnecessary incarceration, and reduce recidivism. This is a significant commitment to our justice system that benefits citizens, employees, taxpayers, and the entire county.”
The decision to increase staffing comes after the release of several federal and state studies on public defense workload and staffing levels, including the National Public Defense Workload Study, released in 2023 in collaboration with the National Center for State Courts and the American Bar Association.
“This is the largest investment in our public defender’s office since its inception,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija. “Every resident has a constitutional right to counsel. That cannot happen if our public defenders do not have the bandwidth to provide adequate representation. We are committed to this aggressive hiring plan that will ensure the public defender’s office is able to protect the right of county residents to counsel.”
“We are creating a number of much-needed positions in the Public Defender’s Office as we redress a situation that has persisted for several years and is no longer sustainable,” said County Commissioner Thomas DiBello. “Appropriately staffing the Public Defender’s Office demonstrates our commitment to the needs of our employees and the county, and is also the most fiscally responsible course of action.”
The Montgomery County Salary Committee, comprised of the three county commissioners and County Controller Karen Sanchez, voted unanimously to immediately adjust the size of the public defender position to better align it with current caseloads and projected workloads.
“By adding more attorneys and administrative professionals to our team, we are significantly better able to provide the high-quality representation each individual deserves,” said Christine Lora, Montgomery County’s chief public defender. “Not only will this reduce the burden on current staff, but it will also meet national standards for public defender workload and staffing. With this action, this administration is once again proving itself to be a leader in this Commonwealth. We know this step will lead to better outcomes for our clients and allow us to serve more effectively.”
Paul Heaton, academic director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Carey Law Center, is chair of the Montgomery County Public Defender Advisory Board. Heaton released a report analyzing staffing deficits in public defender offices across the state and found that 91% of Pennsylvania counties that have public defenders currently lack adequate staffing.
“The Constitution — both the federal and state constitutions — guarantees access to representation, but we know, unfortunately, that this constitutional guarantee has been undermined throughout the Commonwealth by persistent underfunding,” said Paul Heaton, chair of the Public Defender Advisory Board. “Our research has found that Montgomery County is not alone — 60 of 66 counties in Pennsylvania have staffing levels that fall below constitutional norms. But with this historic vote, we will take a very important step toward closing that gap.”
“What we are doing right now is a monumental step on behalf of Montgomery County. We are leading the Commonwealth in trying to fix this problem,” Lora said.
Qualified candidates interested in working in Montgomery County can find current job openings online at montgomerycountypa.gov/jobs.
