Public Defenders
Money for court-appointed federal criminal defense lawyers is depleted; some lawyers leave program
Criminal defendants in federal court are at risk of losing legal representation. (Shutterstock)
Court-appointed lawyers representing indigent criminal defendants in federal court are working without pay after the federal judiciary ran out of money for the program.
The funding shortfall that began on July 3 has spurred concern that the panel attorneys could decline new cases, leaving some defendants without representation, according to a U.S. Courts press release. Absent supplemental funding from Congress, the judiciary won’t be able to pay the lawyers until Oct. 1 at the start of the new budget year.
Also affected are investigators, interpreters, expert witnesses and other specialists who are hired by the defense.
The court-appointed private lawyers, who are known as panel attorneys, handle about 40% of cases in which federal defendants receive free lawyers. Federal defender organizations handle the other 60%. Those organizations can’t pick up the slack because of a hiring freeze in effect for 17 of the last 24 months.
About 10 panel attorneys in North Dakota have withdrawn from the program because of the shortfall, the North Dakota Monitor reports, citing information from Jason Tupman, the federal public defender for North and South Dakota. Usually about 100 attorneys are available for the cases in North Dakota.
“The vast majority of our panel are either very small [firm] lawyers and oftentimes solo practitioners,” Tupman told the publication. “Anytime you’re saying, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get a paycheck for three months for money we owe you,’ that’s going to have an impact on them.”
North Dakota panel attorneys were collectively owed $110,000 as of Tuesday.
Other publications covering the shortfall include Law360, WMUR and the Indiana Lawyer.
Panel attorneys are paid $175 an hour in noncapital cases and up to $223 an hour in death-penalty cases. The judiciary has asked congressional appropriators for $116 million in supplemental funding that would allow payments to begin flowing again.
The funding shortfall stems from a decision by Congress to hold funding this fiscal year to the same level it was the previous year. The judiciary is seeking a 21% funding increase for federal defenders next fiscal year, according to previous news coverage.
Among those criticizing the underfunding is U.S. District Judge Daniel M. Traynor of the District of North Dakota. “This is no way to run a railroad much less the U.S. government,” he told the North Dakota Monitor.
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