Maine moving to create public defender office
(The Center Square) – Maine is moving to set up a new public defender’s office to provide legal representation for low-income defendants in the state’s rural areas.
On Monday, the state Legislature approved a plan to spend $1.2 million a year to create a small public defender’s office and hire five full-time attorneys to represent indigent clients and sent the measure to Gov. Janet Mills, who is expected to sign it.
Maine is the only state with no court-appointed lawyers for criminal defendants who can’t afford representation, a right that is guaranteed under the 6th Amendment.
The Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, created in 2009, provides access to about 280 private practice lawyers who accept court-appointed criminal cases.
But critics say the agency is chronically underfunded and a recent watchdog investigation revealed that major felony cases have been assigned to private attorneys who didn’t meet the state’s minimum practice standards.
In 2020, the commission spent more than $16.5 million to hire private attorneys through the program, according to the state Attorney General’s office.
Meanwhile, the state is facing a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine on behalf of several criminal defendants who claim they didn’t receive adequate representation.
The legal challenge alleges that Maine is violating the state and federal constitutions “by failing to set and enforce standards for attorneys who participate in the state’s program, failing to monitor and evaluate these attorneys, failing to ensure adequate funding to the program, and failing to provide training to these attorneys.”
Advocates had been pushing for a much larger allocation that would have provided more than $21 million to create a larger public defender office and provide pay raises for lawyers.
The state currently pays private attorneys $60 per hour, including their expenses, to provide legal representation to indigent clients through the commission.
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