A legislative committee was informed today that, unless states pay lawyers more to represent indigent criminal defendants, there won’t be many attorneys left to take these cases due to a dramatic decrease in the number of lawyers in an eastern state’s three largest counties willing to represent these defendants. Some of the judges working in those three counties said the rates paid attorneys who serve indigent clients should be doubled.
One judge talked about the list of people, half of them lawyers will less than three years? experience, who would take on such cases. The judge said that those attorneys who won?t take the cases any longer say they must stop because of financial reasons. The judge says that the low reimbursement rates mean that less experienced attorneys are the only ones on the list. He wants the in court and out of court rates to be doubled, at least.
Tons more money is to be had by working with civil suits and drawing up wills and deeds. All the judges agreed it is unfair to expect lawyers to lose money while working for the state. Because the large majority of the criminal cases in the state use appointed attorneys, some attorneys stand to lose a lot of money.
Twenty years beforehand, reductions in the budget made attorney pay rates goes down dramatically, especially when it comes to indigent defense cases. The price per hour was cut down a lot, both in and out of the courthouse. The rates have barely changed since then. A different judge agreed with the initial judge’s comments and requested that the panel consider setting hourly rates at the level in place prior to the cuts.
His court is experiencing a crisis because too few attorneys will represent the indigent. If compensation rates were returned to previous levels, more attorneys would be willing to take the cases. Some lawyers who were considering stopping, may even continue. They do think the system is working well, but say the lawyers need more money for their work.
Even though one county has over 300 lawyers working in it, there are very few who will take the indigent cases. And, the number who will is shrinking daily. Over ninety percent of those who ask to be taken off the indigent case list cite the money as the reason, according to one judge. Only one-fourth of the lawyers in one district will agree to take on indigent criminal cases. And, that number has fallen even farther since the data was gathered. The legislative committee took no action on this issue.
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