MO Public Defender System better staffed; not expected to reinstate waiting list for services

Missouri Public Defender System Director Mary Fox says her offices are better staffed today than in 2019 and 2020.  

Fox says she doesn’t think a waiting list for services will be reinstated. 

The list was created back in 2017 and the system tossed it last year, after having more than 58-hundred cases on the list.

In fiscal year 2022, the Legislature put 3.6-million-dollars in the budget to hire an additional 57 public defenders.

Fox says the system’s case numbers have declined. 

A court also ruled that putting poor people on a waiting list to get public defender services violates state and federal law.