Washington County remains one of four Oregon counties where criminal defendants face a public defender crisis, even as the statewide unrepresented backlog dropped 66%.

Oregon Public Defense Commission (OPDC) Director Ken Sanchagrin told state lawmakers on Wednesday, Sept. 9, that 1,104 defendants statewide lacked an assigned attorney as of Aug. 31. That figure is down from a peak of roughly 4,880 unrepresented cases in March 2025, KGW first reported.

The OPDC removed Marion and Coos counties from its crisis list over the past year. Washington County was not among them. It remains designated alongside Multnomah, Jackson and Douglas counties.

No county-level breakdown has been released.

What the crisis has meant locally

The shortage has already cost Washington County. After the Oregon Supreme Court's February 2026 ruling in State v. Roberts set time limits on cases without counsel, 60 days for misdemeanors and 90 days for felonies, charges began falling off the docket.

Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton said in a joint statement with Multnomah County DA Nathan Vasquez that 263 Washington County cases faced dismissal, KATU reported. The cases included drug trafficking, aggravated theft, firearms offenses, felony DUII and strangulation charges.

In March 2026, Hillsboro pediatric physician Dr. Beth Mossman told KPTV that an embezzlement case against her clinic's former accountant, involving more than a dozen felonies and losses exceeding half a million dollars, would be dropped because the county could not appoint an attorney for the defendant. Mossman said the theft forced her clinic to cancel a home-visiting charity program.

"Not having a functional public defense system, that's like turning on the water in your house and having nothing come out …" Barton told KPTV in March 2026.

Statewide reform, local questions

Sanchagrin attributed most of the statewide improvement to a seven-part reform plan he delivered in June 2025 at Gov. Tina Kotek's direction. The plan uses special dockets to resolve cases quickly through plea deals, deploys state-employed public defenders and allows experienced attorneys to carry higher caseloads.

Of the 2,296 cases dismissed statewide under the Roberts ruling, 529 have been refiled, Sanchagrin told lawmakers. He said the ruling accounted for 11% of the total reduction in unrepresented cases.

Gov. Kotek called the 66% drop a turning point in a statement but said work continues until every defendant has an attorney.

The OPDC's 2024 six-year plan estimated Oregon needs 45% more public defense attorneys to fully address the shortage. The state already spends more than $300 million a year on indigent defense.

No public response from the Washington County Board of Commissioners or Washington County Circuit Court on the county's continued crisis designation appeared in public records as of publication.

Stacey Lowe, director of Public Defenders of Oregon, a coalition of 12 nonprofit firms, said her group will ask the 2027 Legislature to fully fund public defense services, projecting that more than 90,000 Oregonians will face criminal charges next year.