Lawyers stressed: Pacific County lowers public defender caseloads
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 7, 2026
SOUTH BEND — One of the most significant topics addressed at 2025’s final meeting of the Pacific County Commission (BOCC) on Dec. 30 dealt with statewide changes in indigent defense caseloads.
The Washington Supreme Court has decided the number of cases handled by indigent defense attorneys — commonly called public defenders — must decrease by 10% annually by 2036. Justices determined the lawyers are too stretched to provide adequate defense, with heavy caseloads leading to “steep declines” in the number of lawyers willing to handle defense work.
The current felony caseload standard for indigent defense is capped at 150. The new standard being implemented will be capped at 47. The new standard requires indigent defense attorneys to be assigned roughly 10 fewer felony cases annually.
Misdemeanors are split into two categories, with one currently capped at 400 cases a year and the other at 300. Under the new standard, misdemeanor caseloads of both types will be capped at 120 cases a year.
Pacific County General Administration (PCGA) Confidential Secretary and Assistant Risk Manager Mindi Young was credited by the commission for hashing out the local resolution.
Healthcare at the jail
Pacific County Jail Services Director Jim Byrd submitted an agenda item to begin looking for a licensed practical nurse (LPN). The jail currently has a contract with Aspen Medical to provide medical services to inmates, and Bird said an LPN will help bridge the gap.
“This is another step toward improving our medical services that we are able to provide in the jail,” Byrd said. “It will take corrections officers out of the mainstream business of medical care, and it will allow us to provide a better quality of service.”
“It was a recommendation to actually go even one step higher than this, but I think that we could accomplish what we need to, having an LPN 40 hours a week in the jail to supplement and augment Aspen-Ivy’s telehealth services,” Byrd added.
The commission noted this has been in the works for a while and the position was budgeted in the jail’s 2025 budget.
“I think we’re just finally at the place where … you’re going to be able to work this in, and we’ve figured out we can pay for it,” Commissioner Lisa Olsen said.
“Right, I think we had the money in the budget to do so, as well as it took some time because we had to evaluate the LPN job description that is currently in effect with the health department and then we had to add some things, adjust some things to it to make it fit the jail,” Byrd replied.
“I think this is a really good step. Thank you for all your hard work,” Olsen said.
Port negotiations
The commission also approved a retroactive contract with the Port of Willapa Harbor for a building currently being used for the Pacific County Coroner’s Office. The contract is in effect from Feb. 1, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2026, for monthly rent of $3,018.
The county is expected to hash out a new long-term deal sometime this month.
“Very good situation for both parties to this point and I hope as we move into 2026, we continue that agreement,” PCGA Chief Administrative Officer Paul Plakinger said.
“Once again, this was a new department we had to create due to the state legislative decisions,” Doyle said. “It’s worked out very well. I want to thank the port for allowing us to at least have space to rent on this. [It] seems to be working well.”
The commission approved the contract.
The Pacific County Department of Health and Human Services also had good news, with a recent $11,698 allocation from the federal government for the Women, Infants and Children services and Maternal and Child Health Block grant.
