When people in jail cannot be represented by a public defender, either because the defender has a conflict of interest with the person’s case or there’s not someone in the office to represent them, the case is referred to the Whatcom County Office of Assigned Counsel.
When the Office of Assigned Counsel, also known as the conflict office, gets involved, two things happen: either the case is referred to one of two full-time attorneys in the office or the office’s clerks refer the case to an outside lawyer.
The Office of Assigned Counsel may get involved in a case for multiple reasons, said Raylene King, the office’s administrator.
“There’s always conflicts, whether it’s a jail fight, or drugs in the jail, or people are victims in one case and defendants in the other case and they can’t testify against each other,” she said.
[ Read more: A decision from the state Supreme Court could turn justice system into legal chaos ]
King took over after the former administrator left in November, and Ryan Swinburnson, one of two full-time attorneys for the office, started in January. In the last eight months, the number of defendants sitting in jail without a lawyer has dropped. The conflict office had employed one full-time attorney prior to Swinburnson.
In 2023, at any given time, more than 40 people in jail were without representation, a violation of the 6th Amendment, despite the efforts of the conflict office, according to prior CDN reporting. As of August 2024, around one person was without representation, King said.
And while the number of people without representation has dropped, the two lawyers in the office are inching toward their case caps — the number of cases criminal defense attorneys are allowed to take in one year. Defense attorneys can take up to 150 felonies or 300 misdemeanor cases.
Swinburnson hit his case limit, while Ashley Bohnett, the other attorney in the office, is still able to take felony cases. King said she was confident Bohnett wouldn’t hit her case limit.
Swinburnson was already predicting hitting case caps before the end of the year when CDN spoke with him in June.
“If I can have a wish list, I’d have another attorney in the office to make sure that we don’t cap out because at this rate, we’re going to hit our caps prior to the end of the year,” Swinburnson said.
When case limits are hit, more pressure will be placed on King and her two assistants to find private attorneys.
King said she and her two clerks are on the phone constantly with private attorneys and struggle to find someone to take a felony case. Some attorneys aren’t qualified to take certain cases and some of the qualified attorneys have retired.
Sometimes it’s a struggle because other counties hire private attorneys at a higher compensation rate than Whatcom.
“It’s basically bidding wars,” she said. “The county only has so much money.”
Despite the struggle, King and Swinburnson see a light at the end of the tunnel for ensuring those in jail have representation.
“Since getting a legal assistant, it’s gone from just triage to actually working cases and getting cases resolved,” Swinburson said. “We’re falling into a routine now and figuring out the process and the procedure.”
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
