(The Center Square) – Spokane County leaders considered accepting nearly $1 million in grant funding for public defense services on Tuesday as they face a lawsuit over the state’s new caseload standards.
The Washington Supreme Court slashed public defender caseload standards last year and required the state to fully comply by 2036. The Washington State Bar Association had requested a shorter deadline and specific weighting criteria, but the justices left that decision up to counties statewide.
Officials at the city and county levels have argued that the new caseload limits amount to an unfunded mandate, as local governments pay roughly 96% of public defense costs. Colin Charbonneau, the director of Spokane County’s Public Defender’s Office, said Tuesday that relief could be on the way soon.
“So essentially, we’re going to try to spend obviously all of the money that they’re going to give to us,” Charbonneau told the Board of County Commissioners during their meeting. “There is about $50,000, by my math yesterday, that would be left over, but I’m sure we can find creative ways to spend that.”
According to Tuesday’s agenda, the state awarded the county a $941,297 contract for “improving the quality of public defense services” from July 2026 through June 2027. The county can use the grant to hire attorneys and support staff, increase salaries and conduct system evaluations, among other things.
However, the contract prohibits the commissioners from using the money to supplant existing funding or spending it on administrative functions, pre-trial monitoring, interpreters and indigency screenings.
If approved during an upcoming legislative meeting, the grant funding could help expand the county’s Public Defender’s Office budget to comply with the new caseload standards.
The board allocated nearly $13 million to public defense this year, but reduced caseloads could require more funding in the future.
The Public Defender’s Office currently employs over 60 attorneys, according to the county’s directory.
Meanwhile, the county faces a $30 million general fund deficit ahead of 2027 that has led the board to consider several different taxes as a way to balance the budget. Addressing public defender caseloads could prove a challenge in the years ahead, and Charbonneau has already filed suit against the county.
Charbonneau did not respond to a request for comment about the grant and lawsuit before publication.
“Washington State funds approximately 4% of public defense statewide, leaving counties – including Spokane County – to shoulder the remaining 96%. This imbalance is unsustainable and is a root cause of the statewide indigent defense crisis,” county officials wrote in a statement back in May.
“Adding to this pressure, misaligned guidelines from [WSBA] that contradict the Washington Supreme Court rules have created an untenable implementation environment,” the officials wrote in response to the lawsuit. “It is time for the Legislature to resolve these conflicts and provide meaningful funding.”
The new limits require counties to reduce maximum caseloads 10% annually from 150 felony cases and 300 to 400 misdemeanor cases per public defender to 47 felony case “credits” and 120 misdemeanor credits by 2036.
According to the lawsuit, Charbonneau’s office had already adopted WSBA’s 2027 compliance schedule and weighting criteria before commissioners later approved their own criteria under the 2036 deadline.
He claimed in the complaint that the county’s criteria understate the workload his office faces and risk violating the new caseload standards. Charbonneau argued that the county had already violated WSBA’s implementation schedule and asked the court to require the board to follow his direction.
While Charbonneau’s lawsuit is still in play in Pend Oreille County Superior Court, the eventual ruling could help Spokane determine how it measures compliance with the new standards moving forward.
However, that won’t address the funding crisis as cities and counties call on the Legislature to increase public defense support while the Democratic majority in Olympia grapples with another budget hole.
“Spokane County will defend its position and demonstrate that the standards adopted by the board comply fully with applicable law, Washington State Supreme Court directives, and the governance framework established by the Legislature,” the local officials concluded in their May statement.