Some court-appointed attorneys won’t get paid until October due to federal funding gap

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A program that pays court-appointed private attorneys to represent some federal criminal defendants has run out of money, meaning the attorneys representing these clients won’t get paid until October, according to a press release from the United States Courts.

The judicial branch’s Defender Services program receives funding from Congress to pay these attorneys, known as panel attorneys, to represent clients who are assigned representation because they cannot afford their own.

But funding for the program ran out on July 3, according to 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy St. Eve, chair of the Judicial Conference’s Budget Committee.

The Indiana Federal Community Defenders, which assigns cases to panel attorneys, did not respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment by Tuesday’s deadline.

The issue stems from a continuing resolution that was passed by Congress in March to fund the government for fiscal year 2025.

This resolution froze all judicial branch funding at the FY 2024 level. Because of the freeze, funding is not available within other judiciary accounts to help close the gap.

“These attorneys will not be paid until October 1 for the work they have done and for the work that we continue to ask them to do, unless the Judiciary receives supplemental funding from Congress before then,” St. Eve said in the release.

Payment for these types of attorneys have been suspended during past congressional budget crises, but typically for no longer than a few weeks in a single fiscal year, according to the U.S. Courts.

The judiciary has been communicating with congressional appropriators to secure an additional $116 million in funding to mitigate payment delays.

St. Eve said the disruptions in payments could reduce panel attorneys’ willingness to accept future cases.

More than 90 percent of defendants in federal criminal cases require court-appointed counsel because they cannot afford to hire their own. Federal defenders’ organizations handle about 60 percent of publicly funded cases, while 40 percent are assigned to private defense lawyers who agree to serve on a court’s Criminal Justice Act panel.

More than 12,000 private panel attorneys nationwide accept assignments from the Criminal Justice Act Panel each year. Of that, around 85 percent of those attorneys work for small or solo firms, posing an even greater hardship when they don’t get paid efficiently.

This issue also impacts specialists used by the defense to represent their clients in court, including investigators, interpreters, and eyewitnesses.

Panel attorneys are paid $175 an hour in non-capital cases and $223 per hour in capital cases, which is lower than the market rate.

The U.S. Courts say these cases can’t be given to federal defender organizations because those offices are already understaffed. Those offices have been under a hiring freeze for 17 of the past 24 months due to budgeting from Congress.