San Francisco public defender says it has 470 unrepresented cases since May

The San Francisco Public Defender's office has not been able to provide representation for 470 misdemeanor and felony cases since May, when it declared itself "unavailable" one day per week for indigent criminal clients because of a lawyer shortage, the office's assistant chief attorney told a judge.

Hadi Razzaq spoke at a hearing Tuesday, held by Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman into the escalating crisis the public defender's office says it is facing because of a shortage of lawyers and what Razzaq called a "mushrooming" of cases in recent years.

Judges started releasing defendants from jail two weeks ago who had been held 45 days, to abide by constitutional protections of habeas corpus and the speedy trial.

Dorfman asked Razzaq at the hearing whether taking fewer cases by declaring unavailability one day per week had helped.

"It's helped a terrible situation," said Razzaq. "A bad situation has not gotten dramatically worse."

Razzaq said that since May, when the Public Defender's office first declared its weekly unavailability, they had not been available for 147 felony cases and 323 misdemeanor cases.

Public Defender Manohar Raju claims felony filings have risen 40% since 2019, misdemeanors 57%, and the total number of active cases by nearly 50%.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins' office has rejected those figures, saying public defenders have had fewer major cases to deal with in the last few years and there is no reason to release defendants who have been jailed pretrial.

In a series of letters and filings submitted to the court, Raju and his leadership team argued that they are required to decline new cases to protect clients' Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy trial.

Dorfman, who oversees felony arraignments, has been holding hearings since Oct. 27 with representatives across the city's legal system to address the public defender's complaints of a lawyer shortage.

Razzaq sought to address comments made Monday by Assistant District Attorney Ana Gonzalez, who told Dorfman there was "no emergency" and that the lawyer shortage had more to do with management of the Public Defender's resources.

The district attorney's analysis showed there are 7,800 combined felony and misdemeanor cases in front of the court, and the public defender's office is handling 67% of those cases, "at most," Gonzalez said in Monday's hearing.

"The statements Gonzalez made about our office staffing ... shows she doesn't know how it operates," Razzaq said Tuesday. "Representing criminal clients is a big portion of our work but it's not all we do in 2025."

Razzaq described how the Public Defender's office had at least 16 attorneys working on other areas of law such as immigration, mental health and juvenile delinquency. He said seven of these attorneys were hired using grant funds, and the terms of those funds meant these attorneys could not assist in criminal cases.

Gonzalez also told Dorfman that case filings are down compared to 2016-2019 and the Public Defender's office is not taking on as many cases as it says it is.

But Razzaq said at Tuesday's hearing that the appropriate metric to consider was open cases, which he claimed are up 11%. It was not clear from which point in time.

"When looking at filings it makes sense to look at filings that create the most work, which is open cases," Razzaq said.

According to San Francisco Superior Court data, in January 2019 there were 2,868 active pending felony cases. In October 2025, there were 4,011 cases and a projected 4,328 cases for November 2025.

The court's data also shows that active pending misdemeanor cases have risen sharply since 2019, with 2,171 cases in January of that year, compared to 3,140 cases in October this year.

When presented with these numbers, Dorfman agreed it was "a significant increase."

Razzaq also highlighted the impact lawyer shortages in the Public Defender's office are having on felony cases, saying there were four trials going ahead without a second chair for the defense. In the Public Defender's office, second chairs can provide guidance to newer, less experienced attorneys, Razzaq said.

The hearings are scheduled to continue Wednesday and next Monday if needed. Besides the public defender's and district attorney's offices, the sheriff's office and representatives of the Conflicts Panel have been included. Dorfman said representatives of those offices can come back and rebut or add more information.

james_twomey@dailyjournal.com