A public defender may have in excess of 200 cases. Some defendants spend fewer than five minutes with their attorney. Some counties bid out public defense at fixed prices; in 2007 Virginia capped public defense for 20-to-life felonies at $2085. Bach[1] documents a defender who was paid $42,150; in four years he took fourteen cases to trial, out of 1493; on one day he represented 89 defendants, all of whom plead guilty or had their trials deferred.

These numbers compare unfavorably with the cost of software contracts, the typical pay of software developers, and the amount of time that a line of code gets to spend with its developer[2].

[1] Amy Bach, _Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court_ [2] Steve McConnell, _Software Estimation_