Raju’s office points to a recent study of public defender workloads, which concluded that excessive workloads violate court ethics and compromise the judicial system.

Using those standards, the office determined it needs 36 additional attorneys and dozens of support staff just to reach constitutional compliance.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has previously criticized the office’s stance, lashing out at the public defender’s “dereliction of duty” as a tactic to extract more funding from city leaders.

The court has also pushed back, suggesting the office has capacity to accept new cases — a position Raju disputes.

Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, said that while the situation is unusual, it is not unheard of, and that public defender offices in other states have pursued similar legal standoffs when caseloads became unmanageable.

“It’s not unusual for public defenders to seek some kind of legal relief when they claim that their caseloads are too high,” Weisberg told KQED. “This is really, in a sense, a threat to go on strike.”

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins speaks at a rally outside City Hall on Monday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)

Similar standoffs have played out across California. Public defender offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa and Sacramento counties have all declared some form of limited unavailability of new cases in recent years, according to Raju.

Kory DeClark, an attorney representing Raju and Gonzalez, said the office’s refusals reflect a principled effort to safeguard clients’ rights. He said that threatening the city’s top defense officials with contempt only moves the system further from a workable solution.

Dorfman said jail time would not be appropriate, and that he was still deciding whether Raju’s actions are one continuous contempt or separate instances of it. That decision will determine what fines will come as a result of the ruling.

Raju said his office will appeal the judge’s decision.

KQED’s Laura Klivans contributed to this report.