News and Press Releases

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi is facing a $1.9 million dollar cut from his budget. The cut comprises nearly 10 percent of his operating budget, which is primarily used to pay for lawyers who provide services to the City’s poor. No other big city department in San Francisco is facing cuts of this magnitude and the machinations that have...

"In my earlier submission, I predicted that the budget battle between the Mayor and the Public Defender’s office would end badly. What I didn’t predict is what actually happened."

The Public Defender’s Office and the 29,000 people it represents need your support.

According to the co-chairs of the Constitution Project’s National Right to Counsel Committee, proposed budget cuts to the Public Defender’s Office threaten to exact a toll on San Francisco that would greatly outweigh their modest fiscal benefits.

SF Chronicle: The proposed cut is seriously shortsighted and dishonest. If a defendant can't get a public defender, the job goes to a pool of private lawyers where one will take the case - and bill the city. Total savings: just about zero.