About Us
The Public Defender’s Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida (Miami-Dade County) handles about 70,000 cases each year, with about 15,000 cases open at any given time. It is divided into several major divisions: Appeals, Circuit Court (felonies), County Court (misdemeanors and criminal traffic), Children’s Defense (delinquency/dependency court), and Behavioral Health (Baker Act, drug court, mental health court, and veterans’ treatment court). Office operations include an executive office, business office, office-wide training, IT unit and several specialized litigation-related units: capital litigation, early representation, domestic representation, indefinite civil commitment, mitigation and intervention, and investigations.
The Public Defender is an elected official who has a constitutional duty to provide legal representation to people in danger of losing their liberty and who cannot afford to hire a private attorney. To carry out his constitutional duty, the public defender is assisted by:
- Assistant public defenders
- Mitigation and Intervention specialists
- Secretaries, receptionists and clerks
- Paralegals
- Client interviewers
- Investigators
- IT personnel
- Budget and finance personnel
- Administrative personnel
- Law librarian
- Law school interns
- Volunteer attorneys