(Cynthiana, Kentucky, September 30, 2004). Today, the State Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) announced the opening of its full-time office located at 221 S. Main Street, Cynthiana, which will provide indigent defense services to a five-county area of the state - Harrison, Nicholas, Robertson, Pendleton, and Bourbon Counties. The office staffs four attorneys, one secretary and one investigator/paralegal that cover the five-county caseload. 

The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) represented over 131,000 citizens last year in Kentucky's trial and appellate courts. Earlier this week DPA released its annual report of the numbers of cases and clients represented by public defenders during the last year.  Public defenders began FY04 with an average caseload of 484.  DPA used additional revenue during FY04 to hire 10 new caseload reduction lawyers and placed them in offices with the heaviest caseloads.  Public defenders ended FY04 averaging 489 new cases annually.  Despite the hiring of the new caseload reduction lawyers in FY04, the average caseload has risen by 1.1%.  DPA's average caseload for its trial attorneys is 185% of the recognized National Advisory Commission's national standards.  The Cynthiana Office saw average caseloads per attorney rise to 475 in Fiscal Year 2004.

Public Advocate Ernie Lewis, said, "The opening of the Cynthiana Office, DPA's 28^th office moves us toward our goal of all 120 counties being covered by the full-time office system, a system which provides for increased representation to poor people of this state. With the opening of this office covering Harrison, Nicholas, Robertson, Pendleton, and Bourbon Counties, DPA's full time presence will be felt in 118 of the 120 counties.   We still hope to be in all 120 counties by 2005."