Out of funds, Maine’s public defense agency can no longer pay contracted lawyers

Courts have ruled Maine’s indigent defense system is in violation of defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights.

The state’s public defense agency has run out of money to pay the private defense lawyers it contracts with, who handle the vast majority of constitutionally-mandated indigent legal services in Maine.

Hundreds of private attorneys who work for the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services will now go unpaid for legal work that they have already done, and will not be paid again until the start of the next fiscal year in July, unless the Maine Legislature approves emergency funding to close the commission’s $13 million budget shortfall.

Read the full article on Maine Morning Star.