John Gross Proposes New Approach to Ethics of Excessive Caseloads

John Gross wrote “Caseload Transparency: A New Approach to the Ethics of Excessive Caseloads,” published by UCLA Law Review on Jan. 7. The essay argues that the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility do not adequately account for the realities of public defense in assigned-counsel systems. Built on assumptions of a free legal marketplace, the Rules mischaracterize the public defenderclient relationship and wrongly frame excessive caseloads as an individual ethical failure. The essay contends that disciplining public defenders for overload is counterproductive, given systemic underfunding, altruistic pressures and the difficulty of measuring workloads. Instead of urging case refusal, the essay proposes caseload transparency: requiring public defenders to disclose their workloads to clients and courts. Such transparency would empower defendants, expose structural deficiencies and potentially disrupt assembly-line justice by forcing courts to confront the consequences of chronic under-resourcing. Read the essay.