State defense lawyers 'face financial ruin,' memo states

Federal prosecutors had said judges could compel attorneys to work without pay.

- BRITTNY MEJIA

CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times THE Edward R. Roybal Center in downtown L.A.

California defense attorneys facing the threat of eviction. Some paying for case-related expenses out of pocket. Others forced to stop taking federal court-appointed cases to ensure financial survival.

Defense attorneys laid out the dire circumstances in a Tuesday memo to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, noting that court-appointed private attorneys who represent indigent federal criminal defendants have been working without pay since funds ran out in July.

They urged the court to reject a memo federal prosecutors sent last month to the court that said judges could compel attorneys to represent defendants without compensation amid concerns that defendants would not have counsel for initial appearances and detention hearings.

Lawyers on what's known as the Criminal Justice Act panel — who step in when federal public defenders have conflicts — are paid from funds appropriated by Congress to the Judicial Branch’s Defender Services program. The program ran out of money on July 3 and the government shutdown exacerbated the unprecedented funding lapse playing out across the country.

As a result of the lack of funding, defense attorneys have filed motions to dismiss cases and — in some cases around the country — judges have stayed criminal proceedings. In New Mexico, lawyers stopped accepting new court-appointed defense work because of the funding crisis.

“Attorneys have long been appointed to serve without compensation, and doing so presents no constitutional problem,” prosecutors wrote in their Oct. 27 memo, which also referenced the possibility of imprisonment for contempt in cases of refusal to serve.

Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said they submitted the memo “at the direction of the court.”