The Idaho State Public Defender office was born on Oct. 1, 2024.

Our agency was created to take on a daunting task: to make sure all public defense in Idaho meets the expectation of the U.S. Constitution while providing holistic representation that meets the highest ethical and professional standards to protect the rights of people who can’t afford counsel.

Over the last 12 months, the SPD has taken 44 different ways of doing a very demanding job and consolidating that effort under a single, unifying, and client-based structure.

That meant onboarding and managing over 300 employees in 14 different county-based public defense offices – and signing 150+ contract attorneys in Idaho’s remaining 40 counties.

The last year has been quite a ride. New agency. New managers. New case management system. New benefits. New contracts. New clients. Four new county offices came online. Dealing with just under 80,000 total cases. It’s been a lot – and a year later, we are standing strong and improving every day.

All thanks and credit go to our employees and contract attorneys. They have shown up every day for the past year and taken on the challenge – and they will do the same thing today, tomorrow, and every day after.

Considering how we started our first year – with some contract attorneys withdrawing from over 1300 cases statewide on day one of our existence; having our entire agency learn how to use the new LegalServer case management system; figuring out how the seven District Public Defenders would manage contract work in counties without employees; and general first-year growing pains – the SPD on Oct. 1 2025 is a different place.

We are in an operational rhythm now. Hard work from our District Public Defenders got us caught up on the withdrawals. We’ve learned how to work together and solve problems across the state – a process that continues to evolve, like any other government agency.

Thanks to financial support from the Idaho Legislature during the last session, our agency was able to adopt a more competitive salary matrix for attorneys that has made us more competitive in the marketplace – and keep lawyers from leaving. We even were able to rehire a few attorneys who left at the beginning of our transition.

We’ve been able to hire more attorneys in offices where we have struggled in the past, like Kootenai and Bannock counties. We now have staffed our new offices in Elmore and Jerome counties and hired lead attorneys for new offices in Benewah and Shoshone counties.

That work is not done. Attorneys are in short supply in Idaho, and our agency continues to recruit trial lawyers for the more rural and remote parts of the state.

We’ve developed and expanded law school intern and extern programs for our institutional offices. Our HR reps are working closely with our admin staff on new training and development opportunities.

It’s an exciting time for the SPD, so keep your eye on this space and we’ll update you on what we are doing in year two!