Court-appointed lawyer fund faces shortfall
The state fund to pay private lawyers to represent people too poor to afford an attorney is set to run out of money two weeks before the end of the year.
The Portland Press Herald reported Steven Carey, chairman of the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services that oversees the fund, expected this would have been the first year of full funding for the program since its inception in 2011. The Legislature has underfunded the program each year, requiring attorneys representing the poor to go weeks or more without pay.
The paper reported participating lawyers received an email Wednesday saying that payments for court-appointed work, at $50 an hour, would likely stop Dec. 17 and that further bills for the constitutionally required work won’t be paid until January.
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