381 | With a Shortage of Lawyers and Too Many Cases, Will New Mexico Public Defenders Need to Stop Taking New Cases? w/Ben Baur

Today, Hunter was joined once again by New Mexico’s Chief Public Defender, Ben Baur. A few years back, a workload study estimated that New Mexico had 1/3 of the public defenders it needed to meet its workload demands. At that time, the state set out on a five-year plan to address the staffing shortage. Unfortunately, the state has not stuck to the five-year plan. Now, with a shortage of attorneys in rural parts of the state, low pay for contract attorneys, and still too many cases, will the New Mexico public defenders have to stop taking new cases?   Guest: Ben Baur, Chief Public Defender, New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender   Resources: Contact the New Mexico Public Defender https://www.lopdnm.us/offices/ New Mexico Resources https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nAHtHZaAmu6My2tL04Dn_HlLhy-HARuP?usp=sharing New Mexico Workload Study https://www.lopdnm.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LOPD-Attorney-Workload-Study2.pdf New Mexico Five Year Plan https://www.lopdnm.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Final-Draft-LOPD-5-Year-Plan.pdf   Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patreon www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home