Lyon County attorney juggles massive indigent caseload

When a friend and soon-to-be judge in Lyon County asked Jesse Kalter to take over his law firm last year, the newly minted attorney jumped at the chance.

The 27-year-old Kalter, who had passed the bar exam a few weeks before, also inherited his colleague's $105,000 contract with the county to represent hundreds of indigent defendants in criminal cases.

Kalter suddenly had the kind of caseload that would have tested even the most seasoned attorney. Soon he was defending suspects accused of drug trafficking, rape and murder.

Today, Kalter says he is juggling more than 600 indigent cases, about 200 of them felonies: "The number of cases is huge. What you do is learn real fast."

Fast learner or not, Kalter has been put in an impossible situation, said Malia Brink, indigent defense counsel for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"You've managed to hit on every indigent defense problem in this one place," Brink said, adding that her group is planning a trip to Nevada next month to learn more about problems with public defense in Nevada.

A Nevada Supreme Court commission is also examining what some legal experts call a statewide indigent defense crisis. The panel formed after a Review-Journal series in March about flaws in Clark County's system of assigning private attorneys to indigent defendants, a process that was overhauled last month by local court officials.

What remain are nagging questions about how to help public defenders in the state who are handling caseloads far in excess of American Bar Association standards.

Attorneys with the Clark County public defender's office each currently have felony caseloads approaching 400, more than twice the recommended amount. Washoe County defenders all handle approximately 300 felonies.

And as Kalter's situation attests, crushing caseloads also exist in some of the state's rural counties, a problem made worse by the geographic size of these areas and distances between courthouses.

In Lyon County's flat-fee contract system, three private attorneys with separate practices handle an unlimited number of indigent cases in the nation's seventh-fastest growing county.

Paul Yohey, another contract defender in Lyon County, said he drives between 400 and 600 miles a week to courthouses in Fernley and Yerington, travel time that cuts into the time he can spend with clients.

In systems with overburdened public defenders, the chance of wrongful convictions increases, Brink said. These systems are also often plagued by delays as defenders work their way through a backlog of cases.

After substantial debate at a July meeting, the Supreme Court commission endorsed limiting public defenders across the state to no more than 192 felony cases per year. That number is based on estimates that defenders can reasonably handle an average of four new felonies a week in 48 working weeks.

States from Georgia to Montana have adopted such rules.

It is unclear whether caseload limits would be lower in areas with part-time public defenders.

Critics of the plan, including Clark County Assistant County Manager Liz Quillin, said the potential costs of such limits outweigh the benefits.

The proposed cap is intended to help the commission bring public defender systems into compliance with several national standards. The caseload limits, along with proposed performance standards for public defenders, will be included in a report by the commission later this year. The recommendations must be enacted by the full Supreme Court, and some may require legislative approval.

The commission meets again next month to continue discussing the issue.

The Review-Journal reported last month that other rural Nevada counties are struggling with indigent defense.

Nye County, for example, depends on flat-fee contracts with law firms and, in cases with conflicts of interest, on any attorney willing to regularly take cases in far-flung rural areas.

The state's urban and rural counties have some of the same problems but will likely look in different places for solutions.

Clark and Washoe counties have large enough tax bases and attorney pools to have autonomy in the funding of indigent defense and other services. The same can't be said for Lyon and other cash-strapped rural counties.

For this reason, a state public defender's office was created in 1971 to give less-populated counties with few lawyers outside help.

All but four counties and Carson City have since opted out of that system, largely because the state system pays only about 20 percent of the cost of indigent defense in any county.

Only three states rely more on county funding of public defense than Nevada, according to the Spangenberg Group, a national research organization that studies legal matters.

A county that goes it alone isn't required to set standards for its system. For example, no limits are required on the amount of privately retained work part-time defenders can do. Oversight tends to be minimal.

Despite his high indigent caseload, Kalter said public defense work accounts for only about 60 percent of his overall practice. He said he has taken only one of his indigent cases to jury trial since taking the job.

The county's district court in Yerington had 292 felony cases last year, a 46 percent bump from the year before. The Lyon County Commission this year increased the annual fee for each of the three contract attorneys by 23 percent, to $128,880.

The defenders still have a hard time breaking even, said Ken Ward, a Lyon County contract defender since the early 1990s. He said he opened 29 felony and misdemeanor cases in a recent 10-day period.

"According to the numbers, Lyon County is a train wreck," said David Carroll, research director for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and a member of the Supreme Court commission .

Kalter, who has won praise from fellow attorneys for his ability and work ethic, said he his doing his best to stay on top of things.

A year into his contract, Kalter is law partners with Wayne Pederson, the now-former judge who recommended him for the defender job last year.

Kalter's current clients include Michael Fixer Newcastle, who is accused of murdering his estranged wife in May. A judge has set Newcastle's bail at $5 million.

Indigent defense expert Brink said she is shocked that an attorney with so little experience is handling such a case.

In Clark County, public defenders on the office's murder and sexual assault teams must have at least four years of criminal defense experience.

Kalter said he plans to get informal help on the case from Pederson and the other contract attorneys.

Brink doesn't buy it.

"He has twice the acceptable caseload by national standards and that includes a murder case," she said. "To me, that is a very alarming situation."