About Defense Intel
The intelligence platform for Bay Area criminal defense professionals. Court data, judicial analytics, sentencing trends, and funding insights — all in one place.
Why We Built This
Criminal defense professionals make life-changing decisions every day — bail arguments, sentencing recommendations, plea negotiations, trial strategy. But the data they need to make those decisions is scattered across dozens of government websites, PDF reports, and county budget documents.
Prosecutors have well-funded research units and statewide data systems. Defense attorneys are left searching Judicial Council PDFs and county budget spreadsheets for the same information — if they can find it at all.
We started with the Bay Area because the 9-county region represents some of the most varied criminal justice landscapes in California: from San Francisco's progressive prosecution policies to Contra Costa's chronic underfunding, from Marin's small bench to Santa Clara's massive caseloads.
We built Defense Intel because the Sixth Amendment requires effective representation — and effective representation starts with better data.
Intelligence We Provide
Data sourced from the Judicial Council of California, CA DOJ OpenJustice, PPIC, county budget documents, and public court records.
Court Analytics
Criminal filings, dispositions, clearance rates, backlog trends, and judicial capacity across all 9 Bay Area counties. Updated from Judicial Council Court Statistics Reports.
Judicial Intelligence
Bench composition, vacancy rates, demographics, prior career backgrounds, and retirement projections. Know who sits on the bench and where vacancies create opportunity.
Sentencing Analytics
Plea rates, sentence type breakdowns, diversion utilization, enhancement filings, and reform impacts. County-by-county comparisons reveal sentencing disparities.
Prosecution Watch
DA vs. public defender funding parity, charging patterns, decline rates, and diversion referrals. Track whether defense gets fair resources against prosecution.
Pretrial & Bail Data
Detention rates, bail amounts, release patterns, jail overcrowding, and the impact of bail reform. Data that shapes pretrial advocacy and bail arguments.
Market Intelligence
Defense provider budgets, staffing levels, caseload ratios, and conflict panel compensation data. The funding landscape for criminal defense in California.
Our Values
Constitutional Mission
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to effective counsel. We exist to arm defense professionals with the data they need to make that promise real.
Defense-Side First
Prosecutors have had data advantages for decades. We aggregate the same data from the defense perspective — because parity starts with information access.
Free and Open
Every tool on this platform is free for defense professionals. Court analytics, judicial profiles, sentencing data, career tools — no paywall, no login required.
Data-Driven Advocacy
Better data means better bail arguments, smarter plea negotiations, and more effective sentencing advocacy. We turn government data into actionable defense intelligence.
Bilingual by Design
Criminal defense serves diverse communities. Our platform is fully bilingual (English/Spanish) because access to justice data should never depend on language.
Bay Area First, California Next
We're starting with 9 Bay Area counties and building deep. Statewide expansion comes next — county by county, with the same depth and rigor.
Our Data Sources
All data on Defense Intel comes from publicly available government sources. We do not fabricate data or make projections without basis. Our sources include:
- Judicial Council of California — Court Statistics Reports, Felony Data Dashboards (PC 13155), JO Demographic Surveys
- California DOJ OpenJustice — Crime statistics, Criminal Justice Statistics Center (CJSC) data
- Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) — Pretrial detention research, criminal justice policy analysis
- California Sentencing Institute (CASI) — Sentencing patterns and trends via CJCJ
- County Budget Documents — DA and public defender office funding, staffing levels
- California State Auditor — Public defense funding adequacy reports
Data is refreshed as new reports become available. Most court data reflects FY 2023–24. Methodology notes are included on each intelligence page.