Trial Court Public Defense Dashboard
The information portrayed below shows data that has been collected by the Office of Public Defense (OPD) on county trial court public defense services expenditures statewide between 2010-2021. OPD is statutorily required to disburse state-appropriated funds to counties and cities for the purpose of improving the quality of trial court public defense services. In order for counties to get their pro rata share of state funding, as set forth in RCW 10.101.060, counties must conform to application procedures established by OPD and improve the quality of services for both juveniles and adults. (*Douglas County is the only county that has chosen not to apply for state public defense funds.) Each applying county must require that attorneys providing public defense services attend training approved by OPD at least once a year. Each applying county must report the expenditure for all public defense services in the previous calendar year, as well as case statistics for that year, including per attorney caseloads, and must provide a copy of each current public defense contract to OPD with its application.
In the interactive visualizations below, you can select a specific county using either the drop-down box on the left-hand side or click on the county in the top right-hand embedded map. The top left chart shows total expenditures for each year, with the line in the chart showing the percentage growth from year to year. The bottom left chart shows the total state grant amount of funds disbursed to a county by OPD each year, with the line in this chart showing the percentage of the year’s total expenditures that are covered by the grant. Finally, the bottom right-hand chart shows each year’s per capita expenditures.
