Lawmakers moving forward on public defender reform
[April 17, 2025]
By Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD — When Elizabeth Pollock took over as the Champaign County
public defender in 2022, one of her team’s attorneys was handling 500
cases by herself in a courtroom that should have been staffed by at
least three public defenders.
“That is a recipe for disaster because it’s not just taxing on the
attorney, but it means that the client(s) who that attorney is
representing are not able to speak with her in a timely fashion; they’re
not able to review their cases with her in a timely fashion,” Pollock
said in an interview. “We’re talking about months of delay in terms of
meeting with attorneys and getting results.”
With many county public defender offices pushed to the limits throughout
Illinois, state lawmakers are moving forward on legislation to create a
statewide public defender office.
Many public defender offices in Illinois, especially in rural areas, are
in desperate need of resources to provide adequate defense services. The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1963 on Gideon v. Wainright that anyone
accused of a crime has a right to a defense attorney, setting the basis
for public defenders that judges often assign to defendants to represent
a person for free.
A 2021 report commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court examined nine
counties of varying sizes and found each one lacked necessary resources
to provide defendants proper legal representation because of high
caseloads, a lack of state oversight and long wait times to obtain a
lawyer. A task force created after that report recommended Illinois
fully fund public defense services and establish a statewide office that
provides administrative oversight and resources.
Demand for public defense attorneys has increased in the two years since
the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect in 2023. That law requires more
in-depth evidence and arguments during first appearance hearings than
under the old bond system, where first appearance hearings often lasted
just a few minutes while a judge set a bond. Now detention hearings are
required to take place within 72 hours of an arrest, meaning public
defender services are often needed right away to review early evidence
in cases.
Legislation in front of the General Assembly would create the “Office of
State Public Defender” which would primarily be responsible for
providing public defender offices around the state with more resources.
House Bill 3363 passed the House last week on a 72-41 vote. It now heads
to the Senate where President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, has tried to pass
similar legislation in recent years.
Illinois has already established similar offices to improve other
aspects of criminal court processes, including the Office of State
Appellate Defender and the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services.
First steps for the office
If lawmakers approve the bill, the office may provide public defense
services — but not for several years. Over the first few years, the
office’s primary responsibility would be to assess the needs of public
defenders in Illinois and collect data about their workloads.
“We are really lacking any type of data gathering across public defender
offices in the state of Illinois because we just have never had the
resources to really even count the number of cases that we have,”
Pollock said.
The data gathered would guide decision making about where the money
should be spent and what types of resources — from more attorneys to
case investigators — public defender offices should receive.
The state has appropriated $10 million for public defense services via a
fund established in 2023. State funding would provide greater equity for
public defenders throughout the state, which typically receive funding
from their counties, Pollock said.
“County by county, the budget depends on what that county can provide,
and some counties don’t have as much revenue as others and so they just
simply cannot afford to provide the resources that the public defenders
need to do their jobs,” she said.
Limited data shows all Illinois counties need more public defenders.
According to an analysis of county public defender budgets compiled by
Northwestern University, no Illinois counties have “sufficient” staffing
in public defender offices.
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Rep. Dave Vella, D-Rockford, speaks with a colleague in the Illinois
House on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Jade Aubrey)
Some positions in public defender offices aren’t filled at all,
including 83% of counties that don’t have any investigators in public
defender offices, according to researchers.
Most other states also have some level of state oversight and are the
primary funding source for public defenders. Illinois doesn’t fall into
either category.
The bill would require counties to bump up salaries for public defenders
from 90% to 95% of a state’s attorney’s salary, something proponents say
will help improve recruitment and retention.
Appointing public defenders
Another key provision of the bill would change how public defenders are
selected. Outside of Cook County, top county judges appoint or remove
public defenders. Under the bill, a local nominating committee would be
tasked with appointing or removing public defenders, which is designed
to give the public defenders more independence from the judiciary.
“You’re now arguing in front of a judge who hires you and a judge who
fires you, potentially. Whereas a state’s attorney is an elected
official and a judge has no power over him or her and no power over
their budget,” bill sponsor Rep. Dave Vella, D-Rockford, said in an
interview.
Chief judges could still be part of the local committees appointing
public defenders, however. But their voice would be one of between four
and six members of the commission that selects a county’s public
defender. Other local commission members would include attorneys,
representatives of law schools or legal professional organizations and
former public defender clients.
For now, that process would not be required for counties with fewer than
35,000 people as those counties typically rely on contract attorneys for
public defense that split their time in multiple counties. State law
currently doesn’t require those smaller counties, which account for more
than half of the state’s 102 counties, to have public defender offices.
Cook County already has its own appointment process different from the
rest of the state.
“The problem is the appearance of impropriety,” Vella said. “We have a
system right now in Illinois and in America where defendants and people
who are in the system are starting to have some real questions about the
fairness of the system.”
Pollock explained it makes sense that judges are part of the process
because they see the attorneys perform in the courtroom and might be
able to tell who would make a good public defender. But the problem is
it could create an appearance for defendants that their public defender
might change how they represent someone to make their “boss” — the chief
judge — happy.
Former Madison County Public Defender John Rekowski disagreed.
“The judges are in the best position to know the local landscape and
know the local bench, know the local climate and pick the person who
should furnish those services,” Rekowski said in an interview.
Rekowski and the Illinois State Bar Association are proposing that
judges continue appointing the public defender, but the commission has
the power to remove the public defender or reappoint the public defender
to a new term. Rekowski said limiting the judge’s power over public
defenders to just their first appointment removes “any possibility (of)
some kind of retribution or intimidation.”
The bill is likely to go through more changes as it heads to the Senate
for consideration.
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