The money has dried up to pay attorneys defending indigents in federal court, prompting three prominent local lawyers to say they won't take any more cases involving poor defendants.
It isn't a matter of greed, the lawyers say, since they maintain they'll never get rich handling indigent cases. But they say they can't provide a good defense because they can't hire an investigator or cover travel expenses.The U.S. magistrate who assigns the cases in Utah said it's bad form not to accept the cases anyway. And when the funds start flowing, Magistrate Ron Boyce said the three attorneys may be cut out of the list of 35 attorneys who routinely handle appointed cases.
"It (refusing cases) would be very unprofessional," Boyce said, indicating the refusal at least implies the lawyers' motives are purely financial.
The lawyers - Loren Weiss, Loni DeLand and Ronald Yengich - said they refuse to go into debt themselves to provide a service the government should pay for.
"It's not a matter of if attorneys are greedy," said DeLand. "You can't pay out of your own pocket for what's needed, like investigators. You're not even getting paid yourself to cover your own bills.
"It doesn't bother me a bit I won't get appointed" after funding resumes, he said. "I refuse to accept an appointment if it means I have to shell out large sums to pay for what is essential to a defense."
Weiss said the latest funding crunch underscores a larger problem: The government's chronic refusal to increase fees for court-appointed defense lawyers. They currently are paid $40 an hour for out-of-court work and $60 an hour while in court.
That's well below the $150 to $200 an hour commonly paid for criminal defense work.
"The pay scale is less than your overhead," said Weiss, who is one of five attorneys sitting on a national indigent-attorney advisory committee.
Funding for criminal defense of indigents, including fees for attorneys, investigators and expert witnesses, dried up in mid-June with 31/2 months left in the fiscal year. Congress last month refused to approve a $25 million emergency appropriation. Another measure is said to be in the works.
Defense lawyers pointedly note that prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers continue to get paid.
About $250 million was budgeted nationally for defense of the poor in federal court this year. That amount will increase to $303 million next year and $511 million the year after that.
Weiss and others say the budget is swelling because of crackdowns by federal law enforcement agencies in several areas, particularly drugs.
In federal court districts outside Utah, the funding shortage has caused more serious problems. For example, lengthy trials in New Mexico, Colorado and Missouri have been postponed.
Weiss believes the shortage of money might be enough to get an indictment dismissed. He said a defense lawyer's inability to hire investigators and expert witnesses would be grist for a motion alleging ineffective counsel.