Availability of Maine defense lawyers reaches all-time low

The supply of legal protection attorneys is at an all-time low in Maine for defendants who can not afford to rent their very own lawyer.

There are 224 attorneys presently accepting court-appointments to legal or little one safety instances statewide, which is down from 410 attorneys in Might 2019, in response to the Maine Fee on Indigent Authorized Companies, or MCILS. 

The lower of accessible attorneys coincides with a rise in instances the place the defendant wants a lawyer appointed on the state’s expense. Attorneys contracted to offer indigent authorized companies had opened a file 31,257 instances by the previous few days of the fiscal yr, which exceeds the annual common of roughly 26,500 instances.

The state company stated it has been capable of assign an lawyer to each case that requires one, however the scarcity of eligible attorneys will increase the danger that there ultimately can be a case that it can not discover counsel for a defendant who’s entitled to 1, stated MCILS Govt Director Justin Andrus.

“The primary particular person who doesn’t get an lawyer, or doesn’t well timed get an lawyer, goes to be harmed — maybe irrevocably,” Andrus stated. “And whereas there is likely to be a temptation by some individuals to have a look at that and say, ‘Properly, it’s just one out of 31,000 instances.’ It’s that individual’s one case. It’s their every part.”

Low pay, excessive caseloads

The scarcity of accessible attorneys has change into an acute situation in a few of Maine’s rural areas, together with Somerset, Washington and Piscataquis counties.

“224 shouldn’t be sufficient. Now we have attorneys which might be certified however not taking instances,” stated Commissioner Donald Alexander, who’s a retired choose.

Some attorneys have stopped accepting instances as a result of the courts are assigning them too many instances directly, he stated. There’s a statewide backlog of unresolved instances and a few courts aren’t accommodating attorneys’ schedules, which is resulting in conflicts, he stated. The result’s much less attorneys to unfold the file caseload amongst. 

The variety of unresolved felony and misdemeanor instances has elevated in practically each courtroom in Maine in comparison with earlier than the pandemic, in response to Judicial Department knowledge from June 2019 to June 2022. 

Commissioner Matthew Morgan, an Augusta-based lawyer who’s eligible for court-appointed instances, stated the backlog and compensation are driving attorneys away.

“Based mostly on my private expertise receiving appointed instances and my conversations with different rostered attorneys there are lots of causes for not taking new appointments, however the low hourly price and having too many present appointments — typically unresolved resulting from pandemic associated delays — are in all probability the 2 largest causes.”

State lawmakers raised the hourly reimbursement price for court-appointed attorneys from $60 to $80 an hour in 2021. However they rejected a proposal to boost attorneys’ compensation once more to $100 an hour earlier this yr.

The vast majority of commissioners by a voice vote on Tuesday supported proposing a $150 an hour reimbursement price in 2023 to draw and retain protection attorneys. That proposal would go to the state Legislature through the price range discussions for 2023 and 2024.

Allegation of misconduct result in suspension

Even with a brief provide of accessible attorneys, allegations {of professional} misconduct have required MCILS to quietly make cuts to guard purchasers.

Dan Umphrey, an lawyer in Caribou, can not settle for new instances to characterize the state’s indigent in gentle of a suggestion in June that his license to follow legislation be suspended.

A 3-person grievance panel of the Board of Overseers of the Bar — a quasi-judicial company that screens lawyer conduct in Maine — beneficial that the state search to droop Umphrey’s license following an investigation of a criticism from a former consumer about his dealing with of a privately retained case. Bar counsel agreed to pursue the suspension in courtroom following a listening to on June 14. 

Umphrey didn’t attend his listening to and didn’t reply to the board of overseers’ investigation.

Andrus, as the top of Maine’s public protection company, additionally suspended Umphrey on June 23.

“Legal professional Umphrey has been decided by the Board of Overseers of the Bar, no less than in the intervening time, to have engaged in conduct that from the attitude of the grievance fee that warrants suspension. That’s not my determination, that’s their determination. The place I’ve an lawyer that’s been topic to these findings, then due to the danger to indigent defendants and their incapability to decide on their very own counsel I wanted to do what I did,” stated Andrus, who beforehand labored as an lawyer for the board of overseers.

Umphrey didn’t reply a name to the cellphone quantity he registered with MCILS and an automatic message stated the voicemail field had not been arrange. Umphrey additionally didn’t reply to an emailed request for remark.

Umphrey was beforehand eligible to characterize defendants on the state’s behalf in felony and misdemeanor instances and to work because the “lawyer of the day” to offer authorized recommendation to defendants throughout their first look in courtroom, in response to MCILS data.

With Umphrey not capable of work on court-appointed instances, there are simply 15 attorneys who’re actively accepting new felony and misdemeanor assignments from the Aroostook County courts, Andrus stated. (Although extra attorneys primarily based in Aroostook and different counties are accepting assignments to some specialised case varieties, corresponding to homicides and intercourse offenses, in Aroostook County). 

The restricted pool of attorneys in Aroostook County is a priority, Andrus stated.

A latest evaluation by MCILS discovered that 22 defendants had collectively spent in extra of 1,300 days with out counsel, together with a few of who had been incarcerated on the Aroostook County Jail with out an lawyer assigned to characterize them and advocate on their behalf.

Court docket clerks had been generally delayed find an out there lawyer even after a choose granted a defendant’s request to be appointed an lawyer by the state. MCILS additionally discovered that clerks in Aroostook County had been appointing some attorneys who weren’t eligible for sure case varieties. Andrus stated attorneys had been requested to withdraw or discover certified co-counsel in every of these instances.

Umphrey labored with the legislation agency Solman & Hunter in Caribou, Maine on the time of the criticism. The legislation agency declined to right away remark and didn’t return a reporter’s message. 

Umphrey’s identical consumer was awarded an undisclosed sum of cash by the board of overseers’ charge arbitration panel in March. 

Assist is much away

Maine officers have few choices to bolster the inventory of attorneys working in rural Maine and long-term options are a number of months away from placing attorneys on the bottom. 

MCILS has the authority to rent 5 public defenders with the beginning of the brand new fiscal yr on July 1. The brand new positions had been accredited as a part of a bipartisan price range settlement by state lawmakers earlier this yr, however the hiring course of will doubtless take a number of months.

The College of Maine College of Regulation can also be in ongoing discussions about opening a authorized assist clinic in Fort Kent — a group in Aroostook County on the Canadian border — for college kids to work on instances, Andrus stated. Provisionally licensed “scholar attorneys” would work on instances just like the Cumberland Authorized Help Clinic, which has served the southern Maine counties of Cumberland, York, Sagadahoc and Androscoggin for greater than 50 years. The northern clinic shouldn’t be but open.

Neither of those plans will instantly add extra attorneys on the bottom to work on instances in Maine’s rural counties, Andrus concedes.

The options that lawmakers ought to contemplate are elevated pay for court-appointed attorneys to allow them to afford paralegal and billing help, stated Commissioner Alexander. The state additionally wants to have a look at using extra full-time public defenders to immediately work on instances the place there are shortages, he stated.

“A number of attorneys are mainly doing their follow with a pc and a mobile phone,” stated Alexander, who warned that’s not sufficient assist.

MCILS can also be talking with skilled organizations for Maine attorneys about the right way to get their members to coach and apply to be court-appointed attorneys. A small variety of skilled attorneys primarily based in Portland and southern Maine have not too long ago joined the record of eligible attorneys, Andrus stated.

However Andrus stated he’s reluctant to ship attorneys from southern Maine to Aroostook County, due to the gap the attorneys would wish to journey to fulfill with their purchasers. A Portland lawyer would wish to journey greater than 300 miles to attend a courtroom listening to in Fort Kent or 250 miles to see a consumer within the Aroostook County Jail.

“We’re staffing instances, however it continues to get tougher,” Andrus stated. “And it will get tougher as a result of we don’t have sufficient attorneys that need to be in this system.”

Samantha Hogan covers authorities accountability for The Maine Monitor. Attain her at samantha@themainemonitor.org.